Apr 10, 2026 11:00 am
Rhondale Tso Seminar Room, Loomis 236

- Sponsor
- Physics Department
- Speaker
- Ben Hooberman (UIUC)
- Contact
- Brandy Koebbe
- bkoebbe@illinois.edu
- Views
- 38
- Originating Calendar
- Physics - High Energy Physics Seminar
- Title: X-ray for the Earth: Finding Critical Minerals for Clean Energy with Cosmic-Ray Muons
Abstract: The transition to clean energy requires access to critical minerals beyond the reach of conventional exploration. This talk presents an approach using cosmic-ray muons, naturally occurring particles that penetrate hundreds of meters into the Earth and are reconstructed using a novel detector with AI-based computer vision. The goal is to see through the Earth, analogous to X-ray imaging in medicine, to locate the materials needed for the clean energy transition.