---
title: "Notre Dame QuarkNet Center"
chunk: 2/6
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre_Dame_QuarkNet_Center"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:16:56.689192+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Tom Loughran ===
Tom Loughran of the University of Notre Dame participated in a summer 2000 Research Experience for Teachers (RET) experience at the Notre Dame QuarkNet Center under the guidance of professor Ruchti. Loughran had obtained a Ph.D. in philosophy from Notre Dame in 1986. Loughran would go on to work in various aspects and offshoots of the Notre Dame QuarkNet Center and Fermilab such as the I2U2 education program, Michiana BioEYES, and the Notre Dame Extended Research Community (NDeRC).

=== Smithsonian cosmic rays ===
In the Summer of 2001, Randal Ruchti and Barry Baumbaugh of Notre Dame installed a cosmic ray detector in a permanent display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. The detector was included in the "Explore the Universe" exhibit that highlighted instruments built by astronomers and scientists. Ruchti and Baumbaugh's detector was the only live functioning device in the exhibit and utilized a night vision scope to project live views of cosmic ray particle tracks on a screen. The night vision scope detected faint pulses of light generated when high energy particles pass through a bundle of special fiber optic material in the device. The building of cosmic ray detectors would become one of the major summer projects for QuarkNet students.

=== NSF funding ===
In 2002, the National Science Foundation approved $3.67 million in funding to continue the QuarkNet program for the next five years with the goal of eventually hosting 60 university based centers similar to the center at Notre Dame. According to professor Ruchti, one of the students from the 2001 program, Amy DeCelles of Trinity School at Greenlawn, had been instrumental in convincing the NSF review panel in Washington D.C. to approve the new funding. The Notre Dame QuarkNet Center was now staffed full time by Beth Marchant (Beiersdorf) who had been a physics teacher at LaSalle High School and had participated as an RET teacher in 2000. Marchant would direct the Notre Dame QuarkNet Center from 2001 to 2009. Dale Wiand of Adams High School and LeRoy Castle of LaPorte High School continued their involvement with the Notre Dame QuarkNet Center. Wiand had accomplished an RET experience at the Notre Dame QuarkNet Center in 2000 and Castle had finished his RET at Notre Dame in 2002.

=== Student growth ===
A news feature in the journal Nature provided an overview of the QuarkNet program and Randal Ruchti's establishment of the Notre Dame QuarkNet Center. The article stressed the ability of QuarkNet teachers to introduce current physics topics within their classrooms. It also mentioned the growth experienced by students in the program who were enabled to ask "probing questions" during their subsequent high school science classes.

== Mid to late 2000s ==

=== ODUs ===

Two students from Lakeshore High School in Stevensville, Michigan, Elliott Mallen and Erin McCamish, were profiled in a newspaper article published in July 2002. The students build devices known as ODUs that would be installed in the Large Hadron Collider at Geneva, Switzerland. The ODUs featured 250 optical fibers and cost approximately $5,000 to make. According to the article, the students had to attend lunch lectures given by professors and guest speakers. As a final project, the students had to deliver a presentation on a particle physics subject. Mallen and McCamish had been recruited by Notre Dame QuarkNet teacher Jeff Chorny of Lakeshore High School and obtained $7.85 per hour of work along with three college credits from Notre Dame.

=== GRID data team ===
During the summers of 2003 and 2004, the GRID data team at the Notre Dame QuarkNet Center worked to create a web page to provide access to test beam data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland. The web page would allow students to access and analyze this data and to store their results. In particular, the proton beam from CERN would be tested for purity, and the detectors would be tested for anomalies. The group traveled to Fermilab to learn the analysis of calorimeter data for beam purity. The data was analyzed with a free analysis program named ROOT, which allowed the students to graph data for analysis. The large amount of data required distributed computers located at Fermilab, Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Chicago, and Notre Dame. This team was led by Notre Dame QuarkNet staff members Daniel Karmgard, Tom Loughran, and Patrick Mooney along with Lynda Rose of Penn High School. The group employed two students each summer. A summary of this project was published in the Mathematics Teacher for May 2005.

=== Notre Dame science outreach ===
The Research Experience for Teachers at Notre Dame (RET@ND) program at Notre Dame was highlighted in an article in ND Works, a news journal catering to the university. The RET@ND program drew applications from local science and mathematics teachers to perform summer research on the campus. During the previous summer, three-dozen area high school teachers were employed. The article stressed the example of the Notre Dame QuarkNet Center as a model of success. According to the article, the Notre Dame QuarkNet Center had engaged dozens of physics teachers and students in two months of all-day research in high energy physics. Other Notre Dame efforts were mentioned such as those of the electrical engineering department, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Physics (JINA), the graduate program for the history and philosophy of science, and a teacher education program for elementary and middle schools sponsored by nearby Saint Mary's College. This later program had been funded by a three-year grand from the Indiana Department of Education.