This summer, more than 700 particle physicists met on the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus to discuss the future of particle physics.
In nine days of exhaustive (and exhausting) meetings, attendees discussed the decades ahead in US particle physics.
From large-scale discussions to small informal meetings, opportunities for discovery in particle physics were everywhere.
Meeting in person allowed researchers to more quickly analyze approaches that could answer the biggest questions in particle physics.
Particle physicists analyzed the field’s most pressing scientific questions and shared detailed studies of the tools and experiments that could answer them.
Everyone was invited to share their opinions at the Snowmass meeting, and presentations were streamed for those who could not attend.
The Snowmass process was not an easy undertaking, but the community came together to consider particle physics’ questions and ways to realistically answer them.
In the end, the particle physics community has one goal: to create a strategic path toward answering the grand, unanswered questions and improve our understanding of nature.
The meeting was the first step. Members of the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel will now study the Snowmass report, seek input from all stakeholders and, in early 2014, present an updated strategic plan for future US particle physics investments over the next 10 years.