Gallery: Physics photowalk

Picturing the worlds particle physics laboratories

By Katie Yurkewicz

1st Place — Global Jury Winner

Photographer: MIKEY ENRIQUEZ
Laboratory: TRIUMF
The inner detectors of TRIUMF's 8Pi nuclear-physics experiment.

2nd Place — Global Jury Winner

Photographer: HANS-PETER HILDEBRANDT
Laboratory: DESY
This highly symmetrical image of a particle detector fascinated DESYs jury with its evocation of a large eye. It also won first place in the Peoples Choice competition.

More than 200 photographers collided this summer with the past, present, and future of particle physics. The first Global Particle Physics Photowalk took photographers behind the scenes at five particle physics laboratories: CERN in Switzerland, DESY in Germany, Fermilab in the USA, KEK in Japan, and TRIUMF in Canada.

Photographers glimpsed the future of particle physics through visits to accelerator test facilities at CERN, Fermilab, and KEK. Fermilabs antimatter factory and TRIUMFs isotope facilities for physics and medicine revealed the current state of the art in particle and nuclear physics. And at DESY, photographers viewed physics past and present simultaneously while visiting the former underground home of the HERA-B detector, where new particle detectors are now built and tested.

"The reason we decided to do the photowalk was to invite people in who might have a different way of looking at things at our laboratory than the people who work here every day," says James Gillies, head of communication at CERN.

Following the August 7 event, which was organized by the InterAction Collaboration, participants submitted thousands of photographs to the laboratories for local competitions. Each laboratory selected its top photographs by jury or by staff vote, and will exhibit the winning photos starting this month.

"As scientists, were excited by our work and our laboratory environment. What was amazing about this event was the opportunity to share that experience with the people who support and benefit from the research we do," says Nigel Lockyer, director of TRIUMF.

In the spirit of friendly competition, each laboratory selected three photographs to compete in two global competitions: a "peoples choice" online vote and a selection by an international panel of judges. The photographs in this gallery represent the 15 finalists for the global competitions.

The peoples choice winner was Hans-Peter Hildebrandts sunburst image of a particle detector at DESY, while the international jury selected Mikey Enriquezs black-and-white photograph of a nuclear physics experiment at TRIUMF.

"I am an amateur nature photographer, and the subjecttechnologywas a great challenge," said Hildebrandt, a lead technician at a German manufacturing firm. "You dont get to see things like accelerators in tunnels very often, and I am really glad I took part in the photowalk."

More than 100 top photographs from the Particle Physics Photowalk are available online at: www.flickr.com/photos/interactions_photos

3rd Place — Global Jury Winner

Photographer: HEIKO RÖMISCH
Laboratory: DESY
The coils of two quadrupole magnets resemble kissing mouths.

Left: Photographer: KEISUKE MORI
Laboratory: KEK
The Belle detector at KEK, which records the collisions of electrons and positrons from the KEKB accelerator.

Right: Photographer: TONY REYNES
Laboratory: FERMILAB
Operator on shift in Fermilabs Main Control Room, where scientists monitor the laboratorys accelerators 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This image won second place in the Peoples Choice competition.

Photographer: MATTHIAS TESCHKE
Laboratory: DESY
Classic image of HERAs accelerator tunnel at DESY, which conveys a sense of space, almost infinity, and inspires curiosity about whats around the corner. This was the third-place winner in the Peoples Choice competition.

Photographer: CHRISTIAN STEFANI
Laboratory: CERN
Electrical cable connected to a valve that is designed to avoid pressure damage in a Large Hadron Collider magnet at CERN.

Photographer: YUKI HAYASHI
Laboratory: KEK
Researchers working through the weekend in KEKs Accelerator Test Facility, which focuses on generating low-emittance beams essential for a future electron-positron linear collider.

Photographer: DIEGO GIOL
Laboratory: CERN
Connection pipe from a spare Large Hadron Collider quadrupole magnet of the type used to do the final focus of LHC beams before collision.

Photographer: DIEGO GIOL
Laboratory: CERN
Part of the test beamline for Linac4, which will be CERNs newest linear accelerator and the first link in the proton acceleration chain for the Large Hadron Collider.

Photographer: KEN DUSZYNSKI
Laboratory: FERMILAB
The Broken Symmetry sculpture at Fermilabs main entrance. The arch appears perfectly symmetric when viewed directly from below, but has carefully calculated asymmetry from other views.

Photographer: ALI LAMBERT
Laboratory: TRIUMF
Atop the worlds largest cyclotron, paperclips in a fringe magnetic field stand upright. The photographer artfully captured an iconic experience of visitors to TRIUMF.

Photographer: CHARLES PETERSON
Laboratory: FERMILAB
View of the roof inside the Meson Laboratory at Fermilab. Each scalloped roof section was designed to be approximately the same width as the Tevatron accelerator tunnel.

Photographer: MIKEY ENRIQUEZ
Laboratory: TRIUMF
A digital texturing technique softens the industrial and technical landscape of TRIUMFs material-science facility.