Just after the Big Bang the early universe was filled with matter so hot, and moving so fast, that atoms could not survive, neither could nuclei, nor could protons and neutrons. Instead the universe was filled with the fundamental building blocks of nature: quarks and gluons. This hot dense matter is known as the quark-gluon plasma.

Our goal is to recreate a small volume of the quark-gluon plasma in the lab, study how it behaves and therefore learn more about how the universe evolved to what we see today.

The group at ISU is actively involved in the PHENIX experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory. This experiment started runing in the summer of 2000 and is now collecting high-quality dataWe have excellent opportunities for new graduate students in physics, undergraduates who want to gain research exeperience, and post-docs who want to take a leadership role in a major experiment.