When lead nuclei collide at nearly the speed of light inside the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, they create the hottest known matter in the universe — the Quark-Gluon Plasma, a state that existed just microseconds after the Big Bang. At the University of Illinois, researchers have developed ultra–radiation-hard detectors capable of withstanding environments far harsher than any nuclear reactor. These detectors help determine how the colliding ions overlap and how the plasma evolves. This lecture will explore how Illinois scientists contribute to the international quest to recreate the matter of the early universe and study matter under the most extreme conditions ever achieved on Earth.