About 250 physicists and researchers from around the world, including Wright Lab scientists from the group of Karsten Heeger, Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics and Director of Yale’s Wright Lab, gathered in the Black Hills of South Dakota from May 18–22, 2026, for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) collaboration meeting. The meeting was co-hosted by South Dakota Mines, and the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF).
The DUNE collaboration is an international effort, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and led by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), involving about 1,500 scientists from over 220 institutions across 39 countries. The Yale DUNE team currently includes Heeger, engineer James Wilhelmi, postdoctoral associate Tyler Stokes, and graduate student Rohit Raut. With DUNE, these researchers are working to answer some of the biggest questions in physics, including the difference in the behavior of neutrinos and antineutrinos, which could explain the dominance of matter in the Universe. DUNE is set to begin taking science data in the early 2030’s, with research continuing until 2050 at SURF.
In addition to the internal scientific and technical meetings, the collaboration also held several related public outreach events. At one of the outreach events, former Wright Lab graduate student Angela White (now a doctoral researcher at the University of Chicago) gave a talk on “The Science and Technology Behind DUNE”. White works on a prototype for DUNE’s near detector systems.
Collaboration members, including the Wright Lab group, also visited the DUNE underground facility at the 4,850-foot level of SURF, where the experimental halls are being prepared for the DUNE far detectors.
Heeger, who has worked in several major underground research facilities around the world, said, “Seeing the DUNE underground facilities was truly impressive and their scale is awe-inspiring.”
Stokes said, “Seeing collaborators from around the world gathered in South Dakota to discuss the experiment and visit the underground caverns where we will be working in the future was both inspiring and a reminder of the truly international nature of DUNE.”
Collaboration members were also invited to sign a beam during the meeting on May 22, and the Yale group took advantage of the opportunity.
Prior to the collaboration meeting, from May 11-15, Raut also attended the NPC DUNE Data Analysis School (NPC-DDAS) 2026 at Fermilab. This school was a focused, hands-on training program for early-career researchers entering data analyses within the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). It was held adjacent to the collaboration meeting to enable participants to more easily attend both the school and the meeting.
Furthermore, Raut and his team won the MaCh3 analysis competition at NPC-DDAS.
Raut said, “Standing in the cavern that will one day house the DUNE Far Detector was one of the most memorable experiences of my Ph.D. so far. Earlier in the week, participating in the NPC-DDAS workshop provided a broader perspective on the software and analysis efforts that support DUNE, making the visit to the detector site even more meaningful.”
This article is adapted from an article by by Michelle Pawelski and MIke Ray published on May 15, 2026 on the SURF website.
This article is a duplicate of the Wright Lab news article of June 5, 2026, by Victoria Misenti. See below for a link to the original article.
