Quantum Diaries

Greetings Quantum Diaries Readers!

I know it’s been awhile since I posted (I’ve been busy, life in physics is crazy, blah, blah, blah…same excuses for being a bad blogger that everyone gives) but I wanted to bring to the attention of the larger community an interesting process that I am helping to organize and take part in. Namely, the planning process in high energy physics known as Snowmass (on the Mississippi).

This is a conference that is only held every ten years or so as an opportunity to bring together the varying sub-fields of high energy physics (HEP) and begin to lay down a road map of what the future of HEP experiments, theory, and education/outreach will look like. Previously, this conference was held for many weeks in Snowmass, Colorado…however this year it will keep it’s name but be held at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

The part of this that I am most excited about is the opportunity that I’ve been asked to help lead in organizing the “young” people in HEP to have their voice heard and their opinions expressed in this planning process. To this end we have (re)formed a group of undergraduate / graduate / post-doc / un-tenured  scientist working in HEP to take part in the various meetings and plannings leading up to the Snowmass conference in July of this year.

The name of this group is the Snowmass Young Physicist Movement (or Snowmass Young for short). Briefly and broadly speaking we have three main charges:

The first charge for the YPM will be to provide a “deliverable” (some sort of summary) to the Community Summer Study reflecting the attitudes and opinions of young particle physicist on the future of the field and the most pressing concerns held by those of us early in our carrer. Moreover, we desire to engage in the planning process for the next generation experiments being planned now as these will shape the future of the field we hope to inherit.

The next charge of the YPM is to become a long term asset to young physicist. This can be done by providing information and resources to people in high energy physics when making carrer descions. This includes, but is not limited to information about current and planned experiments and collaborations. Additionally we hope to provide resources for those of us who decide to take many skills learned in physics out into the general work force.

Finally YPM aims to provide a chance to for young physicists to network and meet each other as well as become known outside of our particular subfield. To this end, we hope to provide meeting times, spaces, and topics of conversation leading up to and following the Snowmass on the Mississippi. (More on this to come)

Now I know you are asking, “How do I become part of this super exciting group?”

Well, the good news is we have a bunch of ways to join and participate if you are interested in having your voice heard during the Snowmass planning process.

1) Join the mailing list to take part in the planning and orgainizing

If you want to be involved at the level of coordinating and orgainizing and don’t mind receiving a good amount of email about the details of the Snowmass Young planning process subscribe to the mailing list by writing a mail to

LISTSERV (AT) LISTSERV . FNAL . GOV

with an empty subject line, and in the body: