A new federal grant will enable Coe College undergraduates to conduct research at some of the world’s premier physics laboratories, including CERN in Switzerland.
The Cedar Rapids liberal arts college received $1.3 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of High Energy Physics to lead a research collaboration that includes California Institute of Technology, University of Notre Dame and the University of Iowa.
According to a release, the funding supports a project called “Advanced Calorimetry for High Energy Physics,” which focuses on developing next-generation particle physics instrumentation technology.
Under the program, Coe students will travel to test technology at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, home to the world’s largest particle physics laboratory; Fermilab near Chicago; and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
“This award reinforces Coe’s reputation as a place where undergraduates don’t just learn science – they do science at the highest level,” said James Wetzel, associate professor of physics at Coe College and the project’s principal investigator. “It is rare for a college of our size to lead a collaboration with partners like Caltech and CERN. It proves that our students are ready to contribute directly to the global scientific enterprise.”
Grant will help fund other initiatives
The grant will also fund outreach programs, including two annual workshops for Iowa high school students, with emphasis on reaching rural communities. Travel assistance will be provided to ensure statewide participation.
The funding enables Coe to hire an instrumentation technician to maintain laboratory equipment and build experimental apparatus.
“At Coe, you get the one-on-one mentorship of a close-knit college, but you also get access to the same world-class facilities as the biggest universities,” said Coe College Provost Angela Ziskowski. “Our students are presenting at international conferences, publishing papers and building the actual equipment used to discover how the universe works.”
The program aims to enhance students’ competitiveness for employment and graduate school admission through Department of Energy-funded research experience and professional networking opportunities.
Recent developments in Coe’s STEM programs include physics professor Mario Affatigato’s appointment as president of the American Ceramic Society, a $464,737 National Science Foundation grant renewal for undergraduate research experiences, a $225,000 NASA grant for high-performance computing clusters and a partnership with Google AI for Education Accelerator.
The college has also opened the David and Janice McInally Center for Health & Society and introduced programs in data science, engineering physics and aviation management and flight operations within the past five years.
