I thought that I'd share, a former student of mine, who graduated HS in 2010, just e-mailed me that she's wrapping up her physics and applied math BS's at UMass Amherst and is "
currently completing my undergraduate honors thesis with the UMass Experimental Particle Physics Group. For my thesis, I am measuring production ratios of W and Z bosons when hadronic bottom quark jets are also produced. The idea is that heavier particles will likely interact with or decay into the W or Z and the ratio can be used to detect these. If the measured ratio does not agree with the theoretical one, then it is implied that there is an unknown, heavier particle decaying into one of them." She's planning on pursuing a doctorate in applied math.
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Chris Siren
Science Teacher
Groton-Dunstable Regional High School