This proposal is a request for continued funding of the Berkeley Particle Data Center. The Center is the headquarters of the international Particle Data Group, whose primary task is to provide particle physicists with up-to-date compiled and evaluated particle-properties data, assessments, and other information they most frequently need. This information is made available to about 28,000 researchers, teachers, and students through the biennial publication of the "Review of Particle Physics" and the "Particle Physics Booklet", and through the annual publication on the Web. The Center provides World Wide Web access to the information in its publications and databases.
The Center has a large impact in science education and awareness. The "Review" and "Booklet" are used by thousands of students and teachers. The Center collaborates on several educational projects, including the QuarkNet program, which involves teachers and students in high energy physics experiments, the Contemporary Physics Education Project, which provides educational materials and wall charts of both "Fundamental Particles and Interactions" and "The History and Fate of the Universe", and the award-winning "Particle Adventure" website. It plays a leading role in the outreach program of the ATLAS Collaboration, including the ATLAS movie that has won gold medals at four international film festivals. These projects make particle physics accessible to non-scientists and enable high-school and college teachers to add particle physics to introductory physics courses.
