Sophomore Completes Summer Work at Fermi Lab

MELBOURNE, FLA. — Nick Leioatts, a resident of Sebastian, Fla. and graduate of Sebastian River High School, worked over the summer at the Fermi National
Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., conducting particle physics research. He is a physics major and sophomore.
Leioatts’ adviser at Fermilab, Hans Wenzel, wrote that “Nick has left a very good impression.” During his nine-week stint at Fermilab, Leioatts wrote
software to monitor computing nodes.
His work also affected the Tevatron, the lab’s hadron collider. A particle accelerator, the hadron collider creates protons and antiprotons and collides
them with each other. This work helps provide crucial missing parts of the subatomic world and the universe.
Scientists at the Fermilab carry out research in high-energy physics to answer the questions: What is the universe made of? How does it work? Where did it
come from?
Dr. Marcus Hohlmann, Leioatts’ academic adviser at Florida Tech and assistant professor of physics and space sciences, facilitated Leioatts’ research stay
at Fermilab.