Fermilab Technicians | Behind the Science

At #Fermilab, technicians are essential to building and managing the experiments. Technicians from diverse backgrounds design, weld, repair and prototype the technology for the next big discovery. Hear from five Fermilab technicians on what it's like to contribute to the boundaries of scientific research.

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#scienceexperiments #technicalskills

[applewoodcourt]

These technicians supporting PhDs are the most underappreciated, yet the most valuable asset at Fermilab and at the countless other science labs around the world. Supporting scientists can be one of the most challenging and thankless jobs around. For the technicians, most of the work is done in relative obscurity because when the papers get published, there usually isn't any mention of technicians.

[shunpillay]

I love this! I’ve been a ‘Behind the Science’ tech for twenty years, and I am eternally grateful for being able to live a small but meaningful life contributing to Science. “We come here. We hang out for eight hours. We get stuff done.” “The one job you would do for free.” 😊 Perfect descriptions!

[WordToMomsYo]

These people are the heroes behind the scenes whose efforts too often go without being recognized by the public. Thanks for producing this video and giving some of these folks a little bit of that spotlight love ❤️

[lenatpurei]

The production team at PUREi had a great time creating this video. Truly an amazing group of people we got the privilege of telling their stories and how they bring the science to life!

[entropyachieved]

As a electrical tech myself its great to see a little appreciation for all the stress and countless hours day and night to make something work right.

[OriginalStachuJones]

This is awesome to see people working behind the scenes! Big kudos to ALL people at the lab. Thank you for all your hard work from simple programmer somewhere in Poland! Much love!

[nanodudek]

Technicians are experts too and deserve recognition for their contributions!!!

[TheGagabou]

This was an amazing video, this is something I will be showing to kids around me; brother, cousins, etc.

Look kids:
This is pushing the boundaries of science.
This is a positive work environment.
This is recognition that a technical job is important.
This is the recognition that humans work here, not numbers
This shows that it's all a team effort

[John_Ridley]

I have several friends who are technicians at Fermilab and I am always envious of them. I'm just now retiring but if I had to start my career over I'd be applying there.

[billlee]

Around thirty-five years at five different universities and research facilities working as a technical support person leads me to say, "Yes, I know exactly how and why these staff members feel the way they do about their jobs." I wish you all the best!

[Nareimooncatt]

I know this is a glorified job ad, but I would love to see this expanded into a behind the scenes series. The scientists get all the fame for the discoveries, but I want to know how the discoveries were made possible. Like what was the process of building a new detector? I know the scientists themselves didn't do it alone. They must have had a collaboration between them and the engineers, machinists, metallurgists, installers, etc, and seeing how all that comes together would be fascinating.

[steveking]

The most important scientists in every lab!

[lastangrypolarbear]

What a great place to work! We cant all be physicists, i only get to watch Youtube and wish, but you guys get to make these amazing things happen, thanks.

[vermasean]

Early reporting team checking in! 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️

[jamesstevens]

As a retired computer hardware engineer, I couldn’t think of anywhere better to work than here.
I spent most of my career working in the corporate sector, and that whole environment is completely toxic!
On the few occasions I got to spend time working at one or more of Australia’s (old) CSIRO research facilities, it was so different. People wanted to be there. What they were doing really meant something, sometimes to the whole world.

[bonnyd.]

Could you do a Behind the Science: Fermilab Engineers. I was a software engineer and my father was an electrical engineer. We were both R&D nerds, with interesting war stories. I am certain that Fermilab engineers have a lot of really good war stories.

[dasgelbevomei]

Shhh. Don't tell the physicists. We've already found out what makes the world go round: It's you, the technicians!

[rdhawke]

I used to live on a property adjacent, and had access, to Fermilab. Bison are kept there and we were told we’d be able to horseback ride on the land if we chose to do so. I loved it there and wanted to stay forever and I would have, had things not happened that changed my life but not in a good way. Suffice it to say it wasn’t pretty…I’ll leave it at that.

[kimberlymays]

You always been a brilliant mind to see you live doing what you do totally incredible as you are cousin . Congratulations to you in video huge smile on my face . Love you Kim🏆🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌

[martinstent]

One more thing they could have said: “This is the closest thing there is to working science fiction. The science of today is yesterday’s science fiction.”