Assistant Professor Kim Palladino joined the department last year to bolster Wisconsin LZ experiment involvement last year. Prof. Palladino secured the support of the US DOE promptly last year, while she was on research leave at SLAC to lead the construction and commissioning of the LZ test system at SLAC laboratory, with graduate student Shaun Alsum. PSL engineer Jeff Cherwinka serves as the chief engineer of the LZ experiment. Professors Carlsmith and Dasu also participate in this unprecedented search for direct interactions of weakly interacting massive particles with Xenon atoms that make up the LZ.