The 2025 Physicists Inspiring the Next Generation: Exploring the Nuclear Matter

The 2025 cohort of the “Physicists Inspiring the Next Generation (PING): Exploring the Nuclear Matter” included thirty-four pre-college students that worked with undergraduate mentors from and in collaboration with past PING cohorts at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) of Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. PING2025 was conducted in a virtual format and included a two-week summer program as well as a year-round research opportunity for high school and middle school students. Undergraduate students were involved in summer internships to perform research in basic and applied nuclear physics topics. Over the Summer 2025, the students acquired data using the Rutherford scattering experiment kit from Leybold two alpha emitters (²¹⁰Po and ²⁴¹Am), analyzed data from the e16027 MoNA Collaboration experiment to reconstruct matter radii of various rare isotopes as well as from the PING/PYXIS neutron detector that was used during the first two MoNA experiments at FRIB (e23033 and e23038). The analysis included Geant4 Monte Carlo simulations and theoretical calculations. performed dedicated mass measurement experiments of ¹⁹⁰Pt and ¹⁹⁰Os using the FRIB/LEBIT facility. The status of this research will be presented and discussed.