简介

My research is in experimental particle physics, where we are striving to understand the fundamental constituents and interactions of matter. I am working on the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment, which measures properties of the standard model interactions and searches for physics beyond it. The very high energy that we can access with the Large Hadron Collider provides a considerably larger reach in sensitivity than previously available. My focus is on searches for supersymmetry. One of the main challenges in such searches is to quickly and robustly obtain predictions for the standard model backgrounds. Although we can calculate many of these backgrounds approximately, insufficient precision or reliablity will introduce systematic uncertainties in signals for new physics. I have developed data-based methods that aim to directly measure and/or cancel the backgrounds, with the primary goal being to obtain predictions that are robust for early data when the calculations and detector modeling may not be complete. Together with several undergraduate students, I am exploring new detector designs based on scintillating fibers and silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). These novel photo-detectors open the possibility of future inexpensive, large area devices with high granularity. We have proposed and simulated a tracking trigger based on radially pointing scintillating fibers. We are building a prototype device to study the detector level performance of such a device.