Osher Fall 2025

• It was really special to have John take us on a tour of his manufacturing facility. thanks again! 10/13/2025 6:16 PM
• Great course / great and brilliant instructor .., among the best I’ve taken over many years.

Thank you, John

• I look forward to taking more classes from John
• He’s brilliant, and a great teacher.
• Instructor made the course interesting and left me wanting more.
• John's preparation paid HUGE dividends to all attendees. I speak from the least-physics-

educated sector, and I can say unequivocally that John offered us all a lot. First rate!

• The instructor was very informative. He discussed the subject matter in a way that was

approachable for individuals with minimal knowledge in the area

• Maybe the best organized class I have ever taken. Fast moving and very engaging.
• John is fabulous! His classes were extremely informative, informal and fun. He presented

physics in a logical, interesting way, engaging the whole class. I hope he teaches more classes

• This was by far the most enlightening OSHER class I have taken. John Alison is an excellent

teacher and was able to make this most complex of subjects relatable … if not always totally comprehensible. I am sorry I missed his previous course on the history of particle physics, and hope that he gives it again so I can catch it the next time. I should qualify my answer on his ability to engage class participants: while he did not go out of his way to draw the audience in (that is, he did not ask questions of the audience), he was extremely kind and accepting of all the questions asked of him, which created a very welcoming atmosphere that perhaps passively encourages audience participation by not intimidating questioners. And, truth be told, there were so many question asked by the audience along the way, and he took each one graciously and carefully, that had he also asked questions of the audience he would have had little time to actually present his material …. which would have been a shame. The lab tour was a great part of the course - it really communicated in ways I didn't previously appreciate just how big physics is done, and how academics willingly allow themselves to be cogs in a machine in order for very high level research to be done by a global network.

• Phenomenal teacher. Was able to take ridiculously complicated concepts and simplify them

down to my level, which was pretty low. I wish he would teach other classes and explain relativity and superstring theory, etc.

• Very interesting. Right level of detail for this type of course
• Very engaging. Wonderful to hear and see important work being done right on campus.

Hello,

My name is John Alison and I will be the instructor for the Experimental Particle Physics Course. Reminder that the course will be held weekly on Wednesdays from 11:00 - 12:30 PM in Osher Room B, starting on September 10th. There will be four sessions, ending on October 1st.

Here is my plan for four weeks.

Week 1: The Standard Model and the Higgs

Week 2: The Cannon and the Camera

Week 3: The Discovery of The Higgs Boson

Week 4: Whats next ? Discussion and field trip.

There will be no homework is there is no required reading/work before hand.

Looking forward to getting started! john

Confirmation of your class with Osher at CMU

https://form.jotform.com/250145569053153

Due May 5th

Title:

Particle Physics after the Discovery of the Higgs Boson : Are We Done ?

Description:

The Standard Model of particle physics is a spectacularly successful theory of the fundamental constituents of the Universe and their interactions. The discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider is, on one hand, the final missing piece of the Standard Model and, on the other, a window into what lies beyond. In this lecture series we will discuss the Standard Model of particle physics and highlight the important role of the Higgs Boson in the theory.

John is a High-Energy Particle Physicist working on the CMS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in Geneva Switzerland. He was part of the team that discovered the Higgs boson in 2012.

John grew up in Pittsburgh; he graduated from Baldwin-Whitehall high-school and then studied physics and philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. He went on to earn a Ph.d. in physics at the University of Pennsylvania and won several thesis awards for his dissertation on the discovery of the Higgs boson. John was then a fellow at UChicago, before joining the physics faculty at Carnegie Mellon in 2018.

John is currently building particle detectors at CMU which will be installed at CERN for upgrade to the LHC. These detectors are all being built and tested in Pittsburgh, with local CMU students and engineers, before being sent to Geneva.

Osher Fall Particle Physics Course

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