Join the experts from UBC’s Department of Physics and Astronomy to find out fun facts about everything from the Milky Way to radio waves in this new, accessible science series. All are welcome!
January [2026[: Particle Physics
Particle physics is the study of the smallest building blocks of the universe. By colliding protons at energies close to those present after the Big Bang, we are trying to uncover the mysteries of how we came to be. Despite the wealth of data that has confirmed the so-called “Standard Model” of particle physics, we know it cannot be the end of the story. This talk will overview what those fundamental particles are, how they interact, and what is being done to understand them.
Presenter: Alison Lister is a Professor in the department of Physics and Astronomy at UBC [University of British Columbia], where she has been since arriving in Vancouver in 2012 as an assistant professor. Her research is in particle physics, the goal of which is to understand the fundamental particles and their interactions. She is one of the 3000 members of the ATLAS collaboration. She has held a number of leadership roles, the most recent being co-chairing of the Canadian sub-atomic physics long-range plan which should help set the stage for the next decade of research within Canada.
Accessibility Information VPL is committed to making our programs accessible for all. If you have an access need that we have not addressed here, please email us at info@vpl.ca.
• Flexible seating options may be available upon request • The expected noise level is moderate • Participants may leave the room at any time
For more information on physical access, view the Accessibility information on the Central Library page.
For anyone unfamiliar with the ATLAS collaboration mentioned in Alison Lister’s biography, there’s this from its Wikipedia entry,
ATLAS[1][2][3] is the largest general-purpose particle detector experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland.[4] The experiment is designed to take advantage of the unprecedented energy available at the LHC and observe phenomena that involve highly massive particles which were not observable using earlier lower-energy accelerators. ATLAS was one of the two LHC experiments involved in the discovery of the Higgs boson in July 2012.[5][6] It was also designed to search for evidence of theories of particle physics beyond the Standard Model.
The experiment is a collaboration involving 6,003 members, out of which 3,822 are physicists (last update: June 26, 2022) from 243 institutions in 40 countries.[1][7]
I have more about ATLAS and local participation but before moving on to that, here’s more about the series at the VPL from its partner, the University of British Columbia\s (UBC) Physics and Astronomy Department (PHAS), specifically from the PHAS Outreach » VPL Science Discovery Series webpage Note: I’m guessing the ‘How the Universe Works’ is a subseries within the VPL’s more comprehensive ‘Science Discovery Series,’,
VPL Science Discovery Series
Welcome to our Science discovery lecture series page, “How the Universe Works!“
The UBC Department of Physics & Astronomy has partnered with the Vancouver Public Library (VPL) to bring you a fun and accessible science series for adults who are curious about science, cutting-edge research and new discoveries that affect our lives. Presentations are by UBC Faculty of Science researchers and instructors, as well as local guest speakers, who come from a variety of science departments. We hope you enjoy this learning space that brings you into the science conversation.
Please register on the VPL webpage if you want to come!
Go to the VPL webpage here: in the search bar, you can enter “science” to bring up all future science events, or “how the universe works” to bring up this specific event. Registration is free!
We believe science is for everyone and we need everyone in science! Thank you for joining us!
Dr. Douglas Scott speaking on “The Physics of Christmas“, December, 2025
Reviews
Thank you everyone who has shared feedback on this event! Here are some comments collected from VPL re: the How the Universe Works talks:
“An educational and engaging lecture”
“It was stimulating and interactive”
“Great presentation and presenter! Made complex ideas easy for an amateur to understand and created foundation for further learning”
“It was pretty meaningful experience, it inspired me a lot to pursue my goal to be an engineer! Thank you so much to everyone who supported this meaningful session! Cheers!”
“Very valuable community presentation, great!”
A little more about ATLAS and scientists in British Columbia
ATLAS collaboration observes first entanglement of top quarks
Particle physics, the study of the behavior of matter and energy at the subatomic level, offers profound insights into understanding the workings of the universe.
The world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. The facility uses a 27-kilometer ring of magnets to push subatomic particles to near the speed of light, causing them to collide and allowing researchers to observe their behaviours. Simon Fraser University (SFU) has been a part of the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN since 2001.
Physics professors Matthias Danninger, Bernd Stelzer and Michel Vetterli and their research group SFU High Energy Physics work with data from the ATLAS detector, contribute to the smooth operation of the ATLAS experiment at CERN, host critical computing infrastructure for ATLAS at SFU, and support the development of key detector components.
The trio has recently contributed to major and high-profile papers on the Higgs boson particle, and the search for long lived particles. They were recently awarded the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics along with CERN researchers from around the world.
Working with LHC data often leads to the discovery of new and unforeseen phenomena. Just this month, CERN reported an intriguing feature in top quark data, the heaviest known elementary particle, pointing to the possible observation of toponium, a fleeting bound state of a top quark and its antiparticle. This result challenges long-held assumptions about the formation and detectability of such a state at the LHC.
In a recent article published in Nature, the ATLAS collaboration reported on the Observation of quantum entanglement with top quarks at the highest energy levels ever recorded.
Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon in quantum physics where two or more particles become linked in such a way that the state of one particle is directly connected to the state of the other, no matter how far apart they are in space.
The scientists detected spin entanglement through a specific angular measurement, marking the first observation of entanglement in quarks and setting a new energy benchmark for such phenomena. Entanglement can be inferred by observing the directions of the charged particles emitted from top quarks as they decay.
ATLAS is an acronym for A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS, as the magnetic field is produced by toroidal magnets. It has the dimensions of a cylinder, 46m long, 25m in diameter, and sits in a cavern 100m below ground. It weighs 7,000 tonnes, similar to the weight of the Eiffel Tower. Image credit: CERN
The ATLAS detector. Eight toroid magnets can be seen surrounding the calorimeter that is later moved into the middle of the detector. This calorimeter will measure the energies of particles produced when protons in the LCH collide. Note person at bottom centre for scale. Image credit: CERN
We spoke to professors Danninger and Stelzer about this observation.
What did you learn about quantum entanglement from this observation? Why is the discovery significant?
While particle physics is deeply rooted in quantum physics, this is the first time entanglement has been observed in quarks,and it has several significant implications. It confirms that quantum entanglement persists even at the highest energy scales of LHC particle collisions, a billion times more energetic than table-top entanglement measurements, reinforcing the universality of quantum mechanics.
The discovery provides a new way to test the predictions of the Standard Model of particle physics. Demonstrating entanglement in high-energy systems opens the door to exploring quantum information concepts in particle physics. This could lead to novel methods for studying quantum entanglement in extreme conditions.
How might this observation influence future analyses and experiments? What will you look for next?
This observation opened a window to entanglement measurements at the LHC which offers the opportunity to measure quantum systems with other particles of the Standard Model. For example, the SFU-led Higgs Boson analysis provides a sample of entangled W bosons, which could enable deeper investigations into quantum entanglement in particle physics, possibly including fundamental Bell test measurements. However, such analyses will likely require the full Run-3 dataset from the LHC, which we are still in the process of collecting.
Does this discovery have implications for quantum computing or other quantum technologies?
Measurements like this often inspire cross-pollination between disciplines. It is important to remain open-minded about how this work might inform future advances in quantum information and quantum communication.
What implications does it have for particle physics or our understanding of nature?
This is the first time entanglement has been observed between top quarks, the heaviest known elementary particles. It confirms that quantum entanglement persists even in the ultra-short lifetimes and high-energy environments of top quark production and decay, providing strong evidence that quantum mechanics governs even the most extreme regimes of the Standard Model.
What stands out from your experience working with the team at CERN?
Working with the team at CERN on ATLAS, one of the largest and most complex scientific instruments ever built, has been a profoundly rewarding experience, allowing us to explore the fundamental building blocks of matter under the most extreme conditions ever created in a laboratory, and to collaborate globally on groundbreaking discoveries like the Higgs boson.
Our team at SFU is excited to prepare the ATLAS experiment of the future, designed to harness these unprecedented data of the High-Luminosity LHC era and further push our understanding of the universe’s fundamental building blocks.
Congratulations to scientists Matthias Danninger, Bernd Stelzer, and Michel Vetterli.
Hopefully, this has whetted your appetite for particle physics and Dr. Alison Lister’s January 22, 2026 presentation, Register (See right hand column for button]
I got a February 4, 2022 notice via email that three SFU Science events are planned over the next several weeks.
Nobel Lectures
From the February 4, 2022 SFU Science notice,
Nobel Lectures
Wednesday February 16, 2022, 5:00-7:00 pm [PST] via live stream
Celebrate the 2021 Nobel awardees with us as our faculty members present the awardees’ work as it relates to their own research. Rob Britton from Chemistry, Edgar Young from Molecular Biology and Biochemistry and Kirsten Zickfeld from Geography [likely acting as the host/interviewer] will present at this year’s event.
Dr. Robert Britton completed his PhD at UBC with Professors Edward Piers and Raymond Anderson in 2002 studying natural product isolation and synthesis, and was then an NSERC [Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada] Postdoctoral Fellow in Cambridge working with Professor Ian Paterson on the synthesis of structurally complex marine natural products. He then joined the Merck Process Chemistry Group in Montreal before beginning his independent research career at Simon Fraser University in 2005. He is currently a Professor at SFU and his research program focuses on reaction discovery, natural product synthesis, medicinal chemistry and radiopharmaceutical chemistry.
Topic: The catalysis of chemical reactions has historically relied on expensive and often low-abundance metals such as gold, palladium and platinum. The discovery that inexpensive and naturally occurring organic molecules can catalyze the same reactions has caused a paradigm shift that has led to more environmentally friendly and economic processes, and served as an enabling tool for scientific discoveries.
Dr. Edgar Young is an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry at SFU. His research lab investigates ion channel proteins that switch their structure in response to electrical and chemical signals, producing complex behaviour in the cardiac and nervous systems.
Topic: The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine was awarded to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian, for their discovery of key molecules in our nervous system that enable our sense of touch. In this talk, we’ll see how these molecules called ion channels work as electrical switches to convey sensations of pressure, pain, heat and cold — and we’ll explore the prospects for medical benefit.
From Nobel Prize Lectures 2021:
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2021 was awarded “for groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex systems” with one half jointly to Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann “for the physical modelling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming” and the other half to Giorgio Parisi “for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales.”
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021 was awarded jointly to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian “for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.”
Engage with award-winning researchers from SFU Science for a series of informal discussions connecting research to important issues of interest to the community.
Aging actively: Why choose to move?
Thursday February 17, 2022, 5:00-6:30 pm
Dr. Dawn Mackey, SFU Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology
Discover the benefits of regular movement for older adults, explore what they want out of physical activity and find out how to create sustainable habits.
Choosing to move can be as simple as moving more, and moving more often – it doesn’t have to mean going to the gym. In this interactive cafe, Dr. Dawn Mackey from SFU’s Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology Department will explain the benefits of regular physical activity for older adults, as well as some risks of not being active enough. We will also explore what older adults want to get out of physical activity, and ways to make physical activity a sustainable habit.]
From the South Pole to the edge of the universe, and back to the coast of British Columbia
Thursday March 24, 2022, 5:00-6:30 pm
Dr. Matthias Danninger, SFU Physics
Learn about neutrinos and how British Columbia may soon hold a dominant role in neutrino astronomy.
[from the eventbrite registration page:
What is a neutrino? What can we learn from neutrinos about the Universe? Dr. Matthias Danninger from the Department of Physics will discuss answers to these questions and how British Columbia could play a dominant role for neutrino astronomy in the near future.]
I have some comments about both SFU Café Scientifique presentations.
With regard to the “Aging actively: Why choose to move?” event in February 2022, it seems to be oriented to students, i.e., future gerontologists and other professionals focused on geriatrics. I can’t help but notice that the presenter (assuming this photo is relatively recent) is not any danger of being described as aged or as a senior,
Dr. Dawn Mackey [downloaded from https://balancefalls.ubc.ca/people/dawn-mackey]
There is nothing inherently wrong with having a youngish professional share work focused on seniors. The problem lies in the fact that presenters for events/talks/conferences/etc. on older folks are almost always young or youngish. I expect that as these professionals age they will find they are no longer participants in the conversation but the objects of the conversation.
As for “From the South Pole to the edge of the universe, and back to the coast of British Columbia,” this claim seems a little optimistic, “… British Columbia may soon hold a dominant role in neutrino astronomy.”
The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics 2015-10-06 Arthur B. McDonald was co-awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics with Takaaki Kajita for the contributions of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Collaboration and Super-Kamiokande Collaboration for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass. The discovery changed our understanding of the innermost workings of matter and proves crucial to our view of the universe.
While I have doubts about the stated goal of being dominant soon, I look forward to being proved wrong. If that happens.
