Oct. 29, 2004
UW-RF Student Turns Childhood Dream Into Reality
By Molly Exner
UW-RF News Bureau
A University of Wisconsin-River Falls student traveled to Uppsala, Sweden in
October to meet with representatives from 27 institutions across the world to
share results and make plans for a telescope that opens a new window into the
universe in Antarctica.
Jonathan Eisch, a junior physics major and Wisconsin Rapids native, accompanied
UW-RF physics Professor Jim Madsen and assistant Professor Glenn Spiczak on
the trip. They met with collaborators from the international IceCube project
from Belgium, Germany, Japan, and Sweden, among others. UW-RF is the only undergraduate
institution affiliated with the Antarctica project, which is making major contributions
in the scientific field of cosmology,
During the last decade, IceCube scientists constructed and operated the first
high-energy neutrino telescope. Completed in 2000, the Antarctic Moon and Neutrino
Detector Array (AMANDA) has transformed part of the Antarctic icecap into a
particle detector.
With AMANDA as its proof-of-concept, the IceCube telescope was constructed to
peer deep into the cosmos searching for dark matter that could reveal new physical
processes associated with the enigmatic origin of the highest energy particles
in nature.
The focus of the IceCube group at UW-RF is on the IceTop Cosmic Ray Detector,
which is installed on the ice surface above the telescope. UW-RF also takes
part in the process of designing and fabricating light shades and permanent
light tight covers for the detectors being deployed this December at the South
Pole.
For the past five years, Madsen has been active in the education and outreach
efforts for the AMANDA and IceCube projects. Madsen has traveled to the South
Pole numerous times and says the trip gives UW-RF students valuable experience
outside of the classroom.
Eisch is just one of Madsen's students whose childhood interest in cosmology
has taken him on a journey across the globe. Madsen has traveled with two other
UW-RF students to the coldest, driest, highest and windiest place on earth.
Eisch read about the AMANDA project in junior high and continued to track its
progress throughout the years. Eisch says he chose to attend UW-RF, not only
for the location and atmosphere, but also because of the University's participation
in the international collaboration.
When Eisch arrived at UW-RF as a freshman, he expressed an interest in working
on the IceCube project. Eisch says Madsen and other members of the physics department
were "extremely enthusiastic" about helping him get started.
Eisch spent the summer of 2004 working with the IceCube group at the Bartol
Research Institute at the University of Delaware, which is one of his first
choices for a doctoral program in physics. Eisch says he wants to put his experience
to work right away and start out "ahead of the crowd."
Through this research project, students and faculty are discovering new techniques
in searching for evidence of dark matter and studying neutrinos, which are some
of the most energetic phenomena in the universe.
"Working on research with the IceCube project has given me lots of real
world experience with electronics, data analysis, programming and hardware design,
all of which will be useful throughout my career," says Eisch. "At
collaboration meetings I've attended in Mons, Belgium; Newark, Delaware and
Uppsala, Sweden, I've able to talk face-to-face with physicists from around
the world and get feedback about what I'm working on."
The National Science Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Alumni Research
Foundation, among other significant sources, provide primary funding supporting
the AMANDA and IceCube projects.
According to Eisch, science is often taught as a static discipline with laws
and equations developed by "old geniuses long ago." Eisch thought
it would be years before he did anything but work out problems in a textbook.
Eisch says, "The biggest surprise in working on the IceCube project is
that you don't have to be old with a Ph.D. to contribute, even in a small way,
to our understanding of nature."
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