Sir Tejinder Virdee dwells on CERN research programme

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, March 5

“Over the past 50 years, the construction of the Standard Model represents a towering intellectual achievement of humankind. This had allowed us to trace in much detail the evolution of our universe from moments after the Big Bang,” said Prof Sir Tejinder Singh Virdee.

Sir Virdee was at the physics department of Panjab University (PU) today for the Prof HS Hans Memorial Lecture.

He gave details of the research programme going on at CERN, Geneva, with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments linked to the discovery of Higgs Boson. He discussed physics being studied with the compact muon solenoid (CMS) experiment at CERN and participation of physicists from the PU. Sir Virdee is known for originating the concept and overseeing the construction of the CMS experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider with four other colleagues and has been referred to as one of the founding fathers of the project. He was elected fellow of the Royal Society in 2012 and was knighted in the Queen’s birthday honours in 2014.

The CMS is now one of the two largest experiments in particle physics. He was deputy leader of the collaboration between 1993-2006 and was then elected spokesperson in January 2007 for a period of three years.

“Particle physics is a modern name for centuries old effort to understand the laws of nature. It aims to answer what are the elementary constituents of matter and what are the forces that control their behaviour at the most basic level,” he said.

“Over the past 100 years, the combination of quantum mechanics and Special Theory of Relativity, along with plethora of particles, discovered had led to Standard Model which is like a new periodic table of fundamental elements. The model explains that there are four kinds of interactions — strong, nuclear, electromagnetic and weak nuclear,” he said.

“At the Large Hardron Collider (LHC), we have discovered the keystone of the Standard Mode l — the Higgs Boson — it appears to be the one predicted by the Standard Model. It is now being studied in great detail,” Sir Virdee said. Earlier, chairperson, Physics Department, Prof Navdeep Goyal, gave an introduction about Prof HS Hans. Prof Manjit Kaur introduced the speaker.

The family of Prof HS Hans who is supporting the annual HS Hans Memorial Lecture, also instituted the Hans “Innovation Award” to the students of the Physics Department, for their innovative projects which have the potential of going into the production mode. The award for 2018, carrying an honorarium of Rs 25,000 has been shared by three students, Malkeet Singh, Rahul Sachdeva and Gurneet Kaur. They have developed smart industrial automation system based on internet of things (IOT); smart stick for blind people based on ultrasonic sensor, GSM and GPS; 3-D robotic control and cost effective ozone generator.

The award will help young students to present their new ideas and innovative work at an early stage, which will lead to their growth as entrepreneurs.