By Leah Hesla  ilc newsline January 31, 2021

The lure of particle physics was strong with Amanda Steinhebel in 2016, when she was just starting as a doctoral student at the University of Oregon in the United States. It was halfway through her first year of grad school, and she was trying to convince herself that it was better to pursue research in something other than particle physics — perhaps in a field that was seen as less esoteric, more down-to-earth.

“I knew I wanted to get into high-energy physics, but I was trying to be ‘responsible,’” Steinhebel said. “I thought, ‘I should do something where the work is more tangible.’ I spent the first half of my year at school trying to talk myself out of particle physics, and I couldn’t do it. I ended up studying HEP anyway.”

Since then, Steinhebel has conducted research on both the International Linear Collider and the ATLAS experiment at CERN, a path that’s enabled her to find physics connections between the two efforts and to create human connections in the community.

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