The School will provide the students a full-immersion, hands-on experience, with several labs exploring experimental techniques for dark matter detection. Planned experiments that students will be able to perform include:

• calibration of photon detectors,
• characterization of ultra-pure Germanium detectors,
• radiopurity determination through spectroscopic measurements,
• the art of fighting electronic noise,
• shielding techniques, measurement of a scintillator's quenching factor,
• particle detection with a bubble chamber and CCDs,
• measurement of electroluminescence in noble gases.

Data acquisition and simulation techniques will also be covered.



The School will be held in the Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Research (LASR) at the University of Chicago. A visit to Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), where the students will become familiar with noble liquid, bubble chamber and cryogenic detectors, is also included.