Professor Tony Weidberg

I currently tutor the full range of the first year physics course which includes mechanics, special relativity and electromagnetism. I also tutor electromagnetism and optics for the second years. I helped develop the new advanced option course in particle physics and currently teach some of the lectures and classes. I have written many of the chapters for an advanced undergraduate textbook on particle physics (Particle Physics in the LHC Era), which is now the core text for our course. I have been an examiner for Physics finals and Prelims (first year exams).

I have worked on the design and construction of the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider(LHC) at CERN. The LHC and ATLAS operation have been very successful and led to the discovery of a (the?) Higgs boson which is responsible for generating mass for the other elementary particles. The LHC is also opening up a new window in physics allowing us to explore new physics such as supersymmetry at the TeV scale. I was responsible for the development and commissioning of the optical links for the read-out of the Silicon strip (SCT) detector. Although the SCT is currently working very efficiently, we had to overcome many reliability issues with the optical links. I am also strongly involved in the R&D for the upgraded silicon tracker for the high luminosity upgrade of the accelerator, HL-LHC. I am using my experience in reliability theory to help ensure that the upgraded silicon tracker will be able to operate reliably in a harsh radiation environment.