On April 23, 2024, we welcomed over 400 visitors to the Wilson Synchrotron Laboratory for our first open house in 15 years! The event featured dozens of scientific demonstrations, ranging from K-12 appropriate introductory demos to high level explanations of Synchrotron radiation, superconducting magnets, superconducting radio-frequency cavities, the CMS experiment at CERN, and much more!
Guests began the day with a guided tour through the CESR control room, then proceeded to the CHESS equipment platform, the original site of the CLEO particle detector. They descended two flights of stairs to the synchrotron ring tunnel, located 50 feet underground, where they were able to see the curvature of the 769 meter circumference structure. Visitors then ducked under a Cornell Compact Undulator to enter the CHESS beamlines experimental floor featuring sample demos and in depth explanations of how synchrotron research is conducted. Following the pathway, visitors navigated to ultra-cool cryogenics demos en route to the high bay CBETA accelerator room. The tour continued to the Vacuum Laboratory, featuring exciting and edible demonstrations, followed by a radiation safety station, and the CHESS operations control room.
The tour route continued to the newly completed Wilson West building, home to the first art gallery ever displayed inside an accelerator hutch, featuring works by CHESS artist-in-residence Dan Torop and original 1960s sculptures by our first Director, Robert Wilson. Wilson West also showcased the new HMF and XLEAP beamlines, where guests were welcomed by a science fair with a dozen accelerator-specific demonstrations designed to dazzle and inspire visitors of all ages. The final destination was the sector 7 biological beamlines of CHESS, featuring 3D glasses visualization of protein crystallography by MacCHESS.
We look forward to inviting the community back to another open house in 2025!
