Lancaster Physics PhD student Beth McCusker was among a group of scientists visiting Washington D.C. to gather congressional support for the high energy physics community.

Beth conducts research at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), the United States' premier particle physics research facility outside Chicago, where she works on the Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND) neutrino experiment.

As a member of the Fermilab Student & Postdoc Association (FSPA), she was among a group of scientists visiting the House of Representatives and the Senate to discuss Particle and Accelerator Physics and advocate for continued funding for the field.

Beth was also invited to meet with an Illinois representative covering the Fermilab facility and will be one of the students when the UK Consul General in Chicago visits Fermilab later this year.

She said: “During my time in Washington, I met with several offices from both the House of Representatives and the Senate, which represented various US states and both Democrat and Republican parties.

“As one of the few participants on the trip who was a UK citizen, I needed to demonstrate the importance of international collaboration in high-energy physics. I was able to provide a personal account as to how a UK graduate student contributes to the US high-energy physics program."

Each year, a delegation from Fermilab, together with representatives of users of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, the US Large Hadron Collider Users Association, and the American Physical Society Division of Particles & Fields, visits Washington D.C on behalf of the US high energy physics community.