Dr Alexander Lenz visited Charterhouse on Thursday 14 January from the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology, Durham University. The talk was to the Feynman Society specialist Physics pupils on ‘Why Does the Universe Exist?’ Review by Charles Sweeting (Year 13):
Dr Lenz earned both of his PhDs in Germany prior to moving to the CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) particle accelerator in Geneva to contribute to the effort of understanding the universe. Dr Lenz now furthers the effort as part of a Durham University team tasked with interpreting the data from CERN and extends his knowledge to teaching and supervising postgraduates in the area of particle physics.
Dr Lenz’s talk targeted the question of the imbalance of matter and antimatter in the universe and described the attempt of applying the study from the very small Quantum Theory, to the very large Big Bang Theory. The talk encompassed how the standard model arises out of the fundamentals of nature, how it implies the Higgs Boson and what the physical experimental limits of our understanding are.
It was fantastic to listen to an expert currently researching in an exciting field - the lecture certainly maintained the high calibre of Feynman talks last term, and set the tone for things to come.