Reinhard Schwienhorst

I am curious about what our world is made of at the smallest, most fundamental level. I am a particle physicist, exploring the energy frontier, studying the laws of nature at the highest energies together with my [MSU colleagues](http://www.pa.msu.edu/hep/atlas/) and collaborators from around the world on the [ATLAS experiment](http://atlas.ch/) at [CERN](http://cern.ch/) near Geneva, Switzerland.

The CERN LHC is a proton-proton collider that is expected to discover new particles and reveal physics at the electroweak symmetry breaking scale. [ATLAS](http://atlas.ch/) and [CMS](http://cms.web.cern.ch/) found the Higgs boson in 2012 and will continue to accumulate data at increasing collision energies. I am excited for the breakthroughs in the understanding of our world that should emerge. I work in the [top group](https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/AtlasPublic/TopPublicResults) on top quark measurements, and in the [exotics group](https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/AtlasPublic/ExoticsPublicResults) on searches for new physics that emerges in connection with the top quark.

I am one of the executive producers of the planetarium show [Phantom of the Universe][https://phantomoftheuniverse.org/] on dark matter, astronomy, underground direct-detection experiments, and the LHC at CERN. The show was produced by an international team, including many talented MSU students. 

I have been on the [DØ](http://www-d0.fnal.gov/) experiment at the [Tevatron](http://www-bdnew.fnal.gov/tevatron/) proton-antiproton collider at [Fermilab](http://www.fnal.gov/) near Chicago, Illinois since 2000. I was co-convener of the analysis group that [discovered single-top quark production](http://www.fnal.gov/pub/presspass/press_releases/Single-Top-Quark-March2009.html).