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Thursday, April 09, 2026
3:45 PM - 4:45 PM
Rosen Auditorium (TA-53, Bldg 1) | Bus Leaves CNLS at 3:15***

P/T Colloquium

The History and Accomplishments of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at BNL

Edward O'Brien
Brookhaven National Laboratory

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Lab has just completed its final run in February 2026. RHIC was the most flexible accelerator ever built, and during its 26 years of operations, it was used to discover and characterize the Quark Gluon Plasma, as well as explore many other nuclear and particle physics topics including the components of nucleon spin. RHIC was also notable for being the home of sPHENIX, which was the most recent major detector built at any colliding-beam accelerator. This talk will discuss the history of RHIC, the physics accomplishments of its experiments and the expectations for sPHENIX.

Bio: Dr. Edward O’Brien is a BNL Distinguished Physicist and Assistant Chair of the Physics Department. He has been a member of the PHENIX and sPHENIX collaborations for over 30 years. Previously he was head of the PHENIX Central Tracking group for 9 years, the PHENIX Operations Director for 13 years, and the sPHENIX Project Director for 10 years. He is an APS Fellow and BNL Pinnacle Award winner.