Dave Hedin
Department of Physics

Aiming for the muon

NIU enjoys an international reputation for its research program in experimental high energy physics, which seeks to indentify and understand the building blocks of nature.

Identifying the building blocks of the NIU program, however, is a much simpler task. It starts with David Hedin, who formed the physics department’s experimental group more than two decades ago.

The physics professor has been conducting research at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory since 1976. In 1982, Hedin began working on what would evolve into DZero, one of two large and now world-famous experiments at the Batavia laboratory.

The DZero collaboration involves hundreds of scientists and is conducted at the Tevatron, the world’s most powerful particle collider. Hedin has helped lead the design, construction and operation of a system for detecting particles known as muons, or heavy electrons. These particles were important sign posts for Fermilab scientists seeking in the early 1990s to discover the top quark, the heaviest known constituent of matter.

“Dave is one of the ‘founding fathers’ of the DZero experiment and collaboration,” Boston University Physics Professor John Butler says.

Hedin came to NIU in 1987 and recruited both faculty and student researchers for the experimental high energy physics group. Since that time, 85 undergraduates and 79 graduate students have worked with the group—with more than 120 contributing to DZero.

“The opportunities that David presented us with at DZero were transformative,” says Edwin Mierkiewicz. Now an assistant scientist at UW-Madison, Mierkiewicz was among the first NIU students recruited by Hedin.

“We became scientists and full partners in one of the most exciting research endeavors of the late 20th century.”