The Relativistic Heavy Ion Research Group is part of the Nuclear Physics Department at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. Our group studies relativistic collisions of heavy ions from the experimental point of view, in order to search and characterize the so called Quark-Gluon Plasma. The study of this state of matter can bring very important insights regarding quarks and gluons. It is also believed that such state of matter has existed in the very initial phase of our Universe, few micro-seconds after the Big-Bang. We are part of the STAR Collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), USA and the ALICE Collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Our group is also involved in several outreach programs. We are organizing guided visits to the Open Laboratory of Nuclear Physics from the University of São Paulo. The goal is to open a research laboratory to middle-school students in order to bring them closer to science. Several studies on how to make these visits more effective are being conducted, constantly improving this program.

We also offer several courses on Nuclear and Particle Physics for School teachers in order to prepare them to teach such subjects to their pupils.