Tim Tait

Tim Tait is an assistant professor at Northwestern University with a joint appintment in the high energy physics division of Argonne National Lab. His research is focused on physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics and early cosmology.  With the Large Hadron Collider experiment turning on next year at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, it is a very exciting time for these areas of fundamental research!  Tait hopes to use LHC data to explain the remaining mysteries of the Standard Model, such as the identity of the dark matter, why there are three generations of matter particles, why there are four forces, and why gravity is so much weaker than the other three forces.

Content by Tim Tait


The Compact Muon Solenoid, one of the Large Hadron Collider's enormous detectors. It will be utilized in the search for new particles, including the Higgs boson. (image credit: CERN)

Have you ever wondered what you are truly made of? At first glance, the answer is pretty obvious—skin, muscles, bones, and so on. But you can keep going—what is your skin made of? Then what are your cells made of? Eventually you’ll get down to the most fundamental components—things that can’t be broken down any further.