Kétévi Assamagan has spent his whole professional life
preparing to search for the unknown. From the time he received his
doctorate in experimental nuclear and high-energy physics from the
University of Virginia in 1995, Assamagan has dedicated his career
to developing detectors and software to explore still-uncharted
areas of particle physics. This exploration includes the search for
dimensions beyond the familiar three; and the search for evidence
of supersymmetry, which postulates that all the particles we are
aware of -- protons, quarks, and so on -- have counterparts that
have yet to be identified. The fruits of Assamagan's work may also
some day shed greater light on the interaction between forces and
matter.
Assamagan has dedicated his career to developing detectors and
software to explore still-uncharted areas of particle physics.
Kétévi Assamagan (standing) with student, Jerry
Vigil, at work during the summer of 2004. Photo courtesy of
Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Assamagan currently pursues his quest for new knowledge about
the universe at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island, New
York, where he participates in the ATLAS project. When construction
is complete, ATLAS will be a super-sized detector used to determine
what happens when beams of protons collide at extremely high
energy.
No ordinary detector, ATLAS -- a collaboration of 1,800
physicists from over 150 universities and laboratories, and 34
countries -- is as large as a five-story building. It will be
installed inside the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the flagship
project now under construction at CERN, the world's largest
particle physics laboratory, located near Geneva, Switzerland.
Though LHC is not scheduled for completion until 2007, with
experiments expected to begin the following year, Assamagan has
been preparing for that day all of his life.
Far From Togo
Assamagan has come a long way from his humble beginnings in a
small village in Togo on the Atlantic Coast of West Africa. He is
the oldest of eight children born to a father who was a factory
mechanic and an illiterate mother who stayed at home raising the
children. "In Africa the fraction of people who can at least read
and write is increasing with the younger generation, but in the
generation of my parents there were a lot of people, especially
women, who didn't go to school," said Assamagan.
Assamagan became multi-lingual early in life, speaking Ewe, his
region's native tongue, at home, and French, the official language
of Togo, in school. He is also fluent in Mina (a language spoken in
the southeast of Togo) and English.
Declaring a Major
Students in Togo who are interested in going to college must
declare a major very early, since the standard college admissions
test they are required to take is weighted toward their stated area
of academic interest. Few students are accepted into college
because space is limited, and once admitted it is almost impossible
to change a major, says Assamagan. Fortunately for Assamagan, he
showed an early aptitude and interest in math, so selecting the
math and physics track in high school was not difficult for
him.
Not having had the opportunity himself, Kétévi's father
encouraged his first-born son to continue on to the Université du
Bénin, located in the capital city of Lomé, and the only college in
the country of Togo. Although his grades were the best in his class
in high school and were good enough to secure a coveted place at
the university, he did not receive any scholarships until his last
year in college. Nevertheless, his father paid for his college
education and he graduated with a bachelor's degree in physics and
chemistry in 1985. Not having enough money to continue his higher
education, Assamagan taught physics in junior high school in Lomé
for two years until, in 1987, he was able to secure an Exchange
Visitor Scholarship from the U.S. Agency for International
Development to study in the U.S.
His first stop was Southern Illinois University, Carbondale,
where he spent three months learning English. He then moved to Ball
State University (Muncie, Indiana), where he obtained a master's
degree in condensed matter physics. It was then that his
scholarship ended. Although he was supposed to return to Togo,
Assamagan wanted to do high-level research that would require a
Ph.D., which was not available in his home country. He managed to
extend his stay by procuring an assistantship at the University of
Virginia. He stayed in the U.S., and continued his studies as a
doctoral student.
After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia,
Assamagan went to work at the Jefferson Laboratory in Newport News,
Virginia, a U.S. Department of Energy nuclear physics facility
managed by the Southeastern Universities Research Association
(SURA). During this time Assamagan also held a postdoctoral
position at Hampton University, a historically black institution --
a SURA member and ATLAS participant -- in nearby Hampton, Virginia.
In 1998, Assamagan moved to Switzerland and spent three years
working on ATLAS at CERN before moving to Brookhaven in 2001 to
continue his work on the development of the massive detector.
Looking For the Higgs
One of ATLAS's jobs will be to try to identify Higgs particles.
If Higgs particles exist, this could explain how other particles
get their masses. To determine if they do exist -- and to answer
many other questions in high-energy physics -- the LHC will propel
protons on a collision course at energy levels intended to simulate
the first moments of the Big Bang. The intention is to have them
collide in the middle of ATLAS, which will measure what happens
when this epic event occurs. The creation and scatter of particles
will be detected, and the results will be used to elucidate some of
the universe's many remaining secrets.
ATLAS consists of four major components. One is the inner
tracker, which measures the paths of electrically charged particles
after the collision. Wrapped around the tracker is a calorimeter,
designed to measure the energy of those particles. And on the outer
portion of ATLAS is the muon spectrometer, which measures the
momentum of muon particles as they scatter from the collision. The
fourth major element is a system of superconducting solenoid and
air-core toroid magnets to bend the trajectories of charged
particles.
Assamagan has been involved in the construction and testing of
the muon spectrometer and the development of software for data
acquisition and analysis. Currently, he serves as the coordinator
for the development of physics analysis tools. These analysis tools
look at the potential of what might be discovered once ATLAS goes
to work. It examines basic questions such as, what areas of the
entire physics spectrum (particles) should ATLAS experiments focus
on? How do you search for them and how do you know when you see
them? It will be up to physicists "to pick out interesting events
that are likely to indicate the existence of supersymmetry, extra
dimensions, black holes, and the like," said Assamagan.
The same drive that brought Assamagan from his village in Togo
to a position of leadership in high-energy physics has continued to
propel his work on ATLAS. What he finds as a result of his search
for new knowledge in physics remains to be seen, but his passion
for research and his standing as an excellent scientist of color is
clearly visible.
Victor D. Chase is a freelance writer and may be
reached at 4vdc@optonline.net.