Motivation

At Brookhaven National Laboratory, scientists make history while expanding the frontiers of discovery.

Celebrate the milestone anniversaries of Nobel Prize-winning discoveries and learn about future explorations in physics at a symposium on Friday, Nov. 22, from 1 to 6 p.m. in Berkner Hall.

This symposium will feature talks on the discoveries of CP violation, the J/psi particle, and their impacts on physics research. It will also provide insights on current and future experiments to advance our understanding of the universe, particularly at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, Large Hadron Collider, BELLE-II at SuperKEKB, and Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment.

Refreshments will be served, and the symposium will conclude with a toast to discovery science’s past, present, and future.

Those who can’t attend this event in person may still register to attend virtually.

Whether participating in person or virtually, attendees are asked to register as soon as possible.

60 years since CP violation discovery

The first discovery of this celebration occurred at Brookhaven Lab in 1964 when Val Fitch and James Cronin discovered a violation of charge conjugation (C) and parity (P) — called “CP violation” — in an experiment at the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS). Fitch and Cronin were presented with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1980.

50 years since J/psi discovered

The second discovery of this celebration occurred in 1974 when a new particle — the J/psi particle — was discovered at both Brookhaven and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, which today is SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Samuel C.C. Ting discovered what he called the "J" particle using the AGS at Brookhaven. Burton Richter found the same particle, which he called the "psi," at SLAC at nearly the same time. The J/psi particle confirmed the existence of another fundamental particle: the charm quark. Ting and Richter shared the Nobel prize for Physics in 1976.

Upcoming Symposium: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is also hosting an event to celebrate discovery of the J/psi particle on Nov. 8. Details