The Fermi Summer School emphasizes the analysis of data from the Fermi instruments through lectures and hands-on workshops. Students spend time working directly with experts in instrumentation, analysis, theory and modeling to develop and extend their own research projects. Topics cover much of the gamma-ray band ranging from keV-MeV transients seen with Fermi's GBM to the highest energies observed by the LAT and the very high energies observed by ground-based gamma-ray telescopes. This year's school will be held at the University of Delaware Conference Center in Lewes, Delaware, from May 31 to June 10, 2022. 

Material will be aimed at graduate students and post-doctoral researchers. Topics will include particle acceleration and gamma-ray production mechanisms; space-based and ground-based gamma-ray instrumentation; spectral, spatial, and time-based analysis of gamma-ray data; modeling and interpretation of gamma-ray data; and astrophysical source classes such as AGN, GRBs, Galactic pulsars and binary systems, supernova remnants, and pulsar wind nebulae as well as searches for dark matter and new physics. 

The software necessary for the tutorials (such as the Fermitools) are distributed in the FermiBottle Docker Container, a fully-functional, self-contained analysis environment.  Please go through the Summer School Checklist to make sure the container is functioning correctly.

On this page

Schedule

Go directly to Week 1 or Week 2. All times are in Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−04:00).

See our Code of Conduct and our COVID guidelines.

Week 1 


Tues, May 31Wed, June 1Thurs, June 2Fri, June 3Sat, June 4
8:00BreakfastBreakfastBreakfastBreakfastBreakfast
9:00

Welcome and Introductions - Liz, Jamie + 

Intro to Space-based Gamma-ray Astronomy

Intro to Fermi LAT - LizModern Blazar Problems: Multiwavelength & Multimessenger - Tiffany Lewis

Science with Fermi GBM - Cori

Science with Fermi LAT Pulsars - Matthew
10:00

Intro to the Fermi Mission and Sky - Liz Hays

Intro to Fermi GBM - Cori Fletcher

Neutron Stars and Gravitational Waves (GW) - Cecilia Chirenti

Future MeV observations and AMEGO-X - Henrike FleischhackBurstCube, a cubesat to detect GW counterparts - Jeremy Perkins
11:00BreakBreakBreakBreak (Photo!)Break
11:30Blazar Basics: Background & Time Series - Tiffany Lewis

Intro to Likelihood - Matthew Kerr

Neutron Stars and Gravitational Waves Part II - Cecilia ChirentiStudent Talks / 1 Slide Summaries

Student Talks / 1 Slide Summaries

12:30LunchLunchLunchLunchLunch
1:30

Getting started with Fermi: Tools and Resources - Joe Eggen, Joe Asercion, Alex Reustle (remote), Nestor Mirabal (remote), Don Horner (remote)

Data Exploration notebook

Data Quicklook notebook

Getting Started with Likelihood Analysis - Liz, Joe, Matthew

FermiSummerSchool Github link - see read.me for instructions to download files for the analysis

Likelihood Notebook



Intro to git and Github - Henrike Fleischhack

Next Steps with Likelihood - Liz, Matthew, Jeremy Perkins

Special guest Cole Miller (See his course on practical astrostatistics) 

Optional breakout: Fermitools advanced installation - Joe A.

Look here for a few project Ideas

Advanced Likelihood - Liz, Matthew, Jeremy

Time to work on Student Projects

Optional breakouts: Pulsar timing - Matthew; Multi-Instrument fitting with 3ML - Henrike 

Advanced Tutorials (Lightcurves and upper limits) - Liz, Jeremy

The Fermi LAT Lightcurve Repository

Student Projects


4:45End of the Day Tag-upEnd of the Day Tag-upEnd of the Day Tag-upEnd of the Day Tag-upEnd of the Day Tag-up





Crab Feast TBD

Week 2


Mon, June 6Tues, June 7Wed, June 8Thurs, June 9Fri, June 10
8:00BreakfastBreakfastBreakfastBreakfastBreakfast
9:00Gamma-ray Binaries - Jamie HolderNeutrinos associated with TXS 0506+056 - Joshua Wood

Impostor Syndrome workshop - Group

Imposter Syndrome Resource folder

TeV Ground-based Astronomy with IACTs - Jamie

9:00 -9:30 Pack up.

9:30 - 10:30 Closing Session

Feedback Form


10:00

Ground-based Gamma-ray Astronomy with HAWC (and friends) - Henrike

Gamma-ray burst science from Multimessenger observations - Judy

Student Talks / 1 Slide Summaries  Fermi LAT Catalog Analysis - Jean Ballet (remote)
11:00BreakBreakBreakBreakBreak
11:30Student Talks / 1 Slide Summaries

Student Talks / 1 Slide Summaries

Photon Adventure - Amy Furniss (Remote)

Student Talks / 1 Slide Summaries  Complete packing up and return bikes.
12:30LunchLunchLunchLunchLunch
1:30

GBM Tutorial - Joshua Wood

FindSource notebook: Example of adding a source to the LAT catalog model to test for detection and position of a new source. (practice updating your cloned git repository.)

Student Projects

Free Afternoon (may trade with Mon or Wed)

GBM tutorial follow up/ Accounting for Trials - Josh

Working with Spectral and spatial shapes - Liz

Student Projects

Fermi Science Through Cake - Judy

Advanced topics: Systematics and validation checks - Liz, Henrike, Judy

Odds and ends and leftover questions - Henrike

A PSF-based method for LAT Data Model comparisons



4:45 End of the Day Tag-up

End of the Day Tag-up

End of the Day Tag-up



Virden BBQ 6-7 PMSunset Cruise 7 PM

Student Talks and 1 Slide Summary Schedule

Friday, June 3

Saturday, June 4

Monday, June 6

Tuesday, June 7

Wednesday, June 8

Thursday, June 9

Supporting Material

Interesting repositories for Fermi analysis

Stay up-to-date with the gamma-ray sky

Additional Resources for gamma-ray astronomy and astrostatistics


Things to Do in Lewes