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research ?
Tis the season, it seems, for recruitment by research groups. I've had two professors grab me in the hallway to recruit me for their groups. One is at Fermilab, on the CDF experiment, on something to do with top quarks and/or looking for signs of the Higgs boson in already-gathered data. Fermilab, more properly Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, is currently the world's most powerful accelerator (until the LHC at CERN in Switzerland/France usurps that title by leaps and bounds, in ~2009) and it occupies a large piece of would-be farmland in Illinois (it is often generously described as being "near Chicago.") The other experiment is the very sexy LIGO, more properly the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, a huge interferometer located at Hanford Nuclear Reservation (formerly site of the Manhattan Project's plutonium Factory and currently one of the country's larger toxic waste cleanup sites) in Washington state. The purpose of LIGO is to sense gravitational waves from far-away cosmic events. These waves are thought to exist but have never been observed, because they are very, very weak; they might or might not be observable with LIGO if they exist.
LIGO: 
Fermilab: 
Both of these groups will start paying me immediately (no need to be a TA next term), and want to send me out to Hanford/Fermilab immediately.. what this really means is to spend the winter break, spring break, and summer at these locations, and, in the case of Fermilab, move there permanently once I pass my qualifying exam (August 2005?).
Problems, though. The Fermilab people expect long-term commitment. I really don't think I want to do particle physics. The professor who would be my advisor is great (friendly, energetic, has clear plans, etc) but he would expect me to become his student, I'd do my thesis at Fermilab, etc... but I have to keep reminding myself that I really don't want to do particle physics. The other project is also something that I don't think I want to do other than as a temporary thing, but they're okay with that. It's just that I have other winter break plans, and would kind of like to be in Rochester for the summer (to get the co-op going). Also, despite (or perhaps because of!) the friendly appearance of Fermilab above, and the desolate appearance of Hanford, I think I prefer Hanford.
What I really want, though, is some kind of table-top physics.. you know, phonons and nonlinear crystals or bose-einstein condensates or quantum information. Also, I really want to go to the South Pole, but no one here is doing anything south-pole related.
Also, both offers will probably be retracted when it's found out that I'm flunking out of grad school. )-:
no subject
LIGO is cool but unlikely to find anything. Hanford is more or less in the middle of nowhere (disclaimer: I've only spent about two or three days there). And it's a pretty long drive to Seattle, really.
Fermilab is cool as well. I could give you advice on dealing with CDF software and whatnot if you end up doing it. Chicago is awesome. Traffic between Fermilab and Chicago is awful. Batavia itself is a pretty dull little town. I wouldn't want to be there without a good way of getting to Chicago every weekend. (Disclaimer: I really, really, really like Chicago. All opinions are appropriately biased. Also, although I worked with CDF for four years I've only spent a couple of days actually at Fermilab.)
But, yes, you don't want to commit yourself long-term to a project you don't want to do. If you think you'd prefer Fermilab, talk to them about the fact that you wouldn't want to stay on, and see if they'd still want you.
I can add more if you want (especially regarding CDF) but for now I need to get some sleep....
no subject
Know of anything similar for Fermilab or LIGO?