Ben Kilminster to receive
2008 Tollestrup Award
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| Ben Kilminster will receive the 2008 Tollestrup Award at Fermilab's annual Users' Meeting, June 4-5. |
CDF collaborator Ben Kilminster has been trying to shine the spotlight on the Higgs boson, and in the process has drawn attention to not only the elusive particle but himself.
He will receive the 2008 Tollestrup Award for his contributions to the search.
His multi-faceted work and his dedication made Kilminster, a postdoctoral researcher from Ohio State University, stand out among the many nominees for the award, said John Conway, Tollestrup Award committee chairman.
"Kilminster worked for years to improve the sensitivity of CDF and the Tevatron experiments for the Standard Model Higgs," Conway said. "He's worked both in the area of detector hardware and physics analysis. He's really brought it all together."
Alvin Tollestrup, namesake of the award, will present Kilminster with the honor at the annual Users' meeting June 4-5.
"Although I'm honored, this is validation for all of the physicists at the Tevatron conducting Higgs research," Kilminster said.
Kilminster first worked to reduce the rate at which the
data collection system triggered on background events
in the CDF detector. His improvements to the system help allow the collaboration to collect Higgs events, even as the Tevatron delivers data at record-breaking instantaneous luminosities
After completing his project, Kilminster switched his focus to data analysis. He played major roles in two key search modes for the Higgs, and helped create new techniques for extracting the Higgs signal from background events.
Kilminster has high hopes for future prospects, especially while Higgs data analysis techniques at CDF and DZero continue to improve.
"I think at this point, we are a few inverse femtobarns and one good idea away from finding the Higgs boson at the Tevatron," Kilminster said.
-- Rhianna Wisniewski
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