CERN Accelerating science

NEW STAFF MEMBERS AND FELLOWS - September 2020

Simranjit Singh Chhibra

I have been working on the CMS experiment since 2010. During my PhD at University of Bari (2010-2013), I participated in the eventual discovery of the SM Higgs boson in 4 leptons decay channel. Over the past five years, I have been searching for new, BSM particles, in case they get produced in the energetic proton-proton collisions at the LHC. Most recently, I have concluded the dark photon search, a particle that could connect the SM with a hidden dark sector of new particles. Being a fellow now I am working on CMS HGCAL L1 triggers upgrade and developing new search techniques exploiting ML.

Michele Corvino

I am a particle physicist and I got my PhD at the University of Naples. During my PhD I have worked on NA62 experiment, performing an analysis to test lepton flavour universality in kaon decays. Since July I joined CERN as Senior Fellow, continuing my work within the NA62 collaboration. My job is focused on the GigaTracker, a state of the art silicon spectrometer used to measure the momentum of the high intensity beam. I will perform the calibration of the detector and monitor its performances during NA62 next run of data taking, starting from 2021.

Raluca Cruceru

I am a fellow in the ALICE Experiment (EP-AIP-PAP), working as a Software Development Engineer. My responsibilities are focused on technologies for organized distributed data analysis. These are dedicated to accessing and analysis of the physics data produced by ALICE, in the most efficient way, making optimal use of the CERN GRID resources. I am looking forward to being part of this great team, collaborating with individuals sharing the same passion for science and technology.

Katya Govorkova

For my fellowship I am joining the CMS experiment at CERN to work on anomaly detection in the hardware trigger. I completed a PhD in experimental particle physics in summer 2020, focusing on a measurement of CP violation and the trigger system of the LHCb experiment. My interests lie in searching for new physics phenomena using unsupervised machine learning, analysis preservation, and automation of data analysis workflows.

Jelena Lalic

I will be part of the Microelectronics section in the Electronics Systems for Experiments group (EP-ESE-ME). I will be working on RD53 ATLAS and CMS pixel chips for phase 2 upgrades. My particular task will be functional testing and characterization of the chips in close collaboration with the RD53 pixel community. I will also be involved in organizing the distribution of the chips to different institutes and giving support for those groups who want to use the RD53 chip in test beams or for other purposes. 

Javier Lopez Gomez

Javier is a computer scientist from University Carlos III of Madrid.  During the last few years, his focus has been on low-level software (e.g. operating systems, embedded software and electronics, and compilers).  He will finish his PhD in October 2020. His thesis is focused on providing techniques that improve software reliability while achieving a good tradeoff between reliability and performance.  During his PhD, he collaborated with the ROOT project; specifically, he worked on supporting entity redefinition on the Cling C++ interpreter.  He joined EP-SFT again as a fellow in September, where he will work on improving ROOT's RNtuple storage layer.

Bruno Olaizola

I am a research fellow working with the ISOLDE Solenoidal Spectrometer (ISS), within the ISOLDE isotope-beam separator facility. ISS uses the superconducting magnet of a former hospital MRI machine to study nuclear reactions with greater precision than ever before. This gives us an insight into how protons and neutrons arrange themselves inside the atomic nuclei, an information required to understand the nuclear structure as well as the reactions that fuel the core of stars.

Hasan Öztürk

I am a recent computer engineering graduate from Boğaziçi University and I’ve just started my junior fellowship in CMS Computing Operations. Specifically, my focus is to develop, operate, optimize and debug the data management and workflow software for CMS central production as a member of the Production & Reprocessing team. Before joining CMS, I took part in a software project in ATLAS with Google Summer of Code program and I developed a resource monitoring infrastructure for Athena framework.

Laetitia Pommepuy

I am Laetitia, the happy recruit with the cheerful & dynamic CMS Secretariat team! I have been joining CERN on the 1st of September, with financial and administrative backgrounds. A few years back, I discovered the multi-cultural environment and non-profit organizations when serving an NGO. Today, I feel that it is a wonderful opportunity to work for such a diverse scientific community. As Administrative Assistant, I will be happy to welcome the new collaborators, support all CMS members as well as collaborate with CMS Management team and EP’s secretariats and services.

Huilin Qu

I have recently joined the CERN CMS team as a research fellow. My research interests are centered around maximizing the physics reach in measurements of the Higgs boson properties and searches for physics beyond the standard model, particularly exploiting novel approaches and advanced techniques such as machine learning. My current focus is on thoroughly probing the Higgs coupling to the charm quark using the full Run 2 dataset. Besides, I am also involved in the upgrade of the CMS High Granularity Calorimeter for HL-LHC, contributing to the development of a novel reconstruction algorithm and the system tests.

Alexander Tuna

I am a fellow on the ATLAS experiment, and I work on the New Small Wheel (NSW). The NSW is a new muon detector which is being assembled and tested at CERN now. I am coordinating the integration of the NSW trigger, which means I work on combining the detector, front-end and back-end electronics into a coherent trigger system. Prior to joining CERN, I was a postdoc at Harvard University, where I worked on NSW and measured rare electroweak processes in the Standard Model.

Ceyhun Uzunoglu

I am a new fellow at physics, software & computing CMS group (EP-CMG-CO) and I am responsible for the CMS Monitoring operations which can be defined as: maintenance, improvement and development of monitoring instruments and data pipelines. I have a Bachelor degree of Computer Engineering in Bogazici University and I have worked as a data engineer in private sector for 2 years after my graduation. It is so excited and honored to work at CERN, and I will use this great opportunity to contribute as much as possible.

Tamara Vazquez Schroeder

I am an experimental particle physicist working with the ATLAS experiment. I joined the ATLAS Collaboration in 2010 as a PhD student with the University of Goettingen, and worked as a post-doc with McGill University until 2018 and as a CERN Research Fellow until mid 2020. Since August, I am working with the CERN ATLAS Trigger group as a CERN Research LD Staff member, focusing on the upgrade of the trigger menu for Run 3. My research will focus on measurements and searches in multi-lepton and multi-bjet final states, such as the measurement of the cross section and properties of tt̄H and tt̄W.

Benedict Vormwald

I joined the ATLAS CERN team in April this year. I have been working on
the development, construction, and commissioning of pixel detectors
since many years. But I also have a heart for detector operation: I was
the operation manager of the CMS phase-1 pixel detector as well as CMS
Run-Coordinator. Now I am very excited to be involved in the Phase-2
ATLAS ITk pixel detector project – the largest pixel detector that our
HEP community has planned for so far. I will work on system test related
aspects where all the different components come together and start to
become a real detector system. Besides my work in ATLAS, I am also
involved in the commissioning of the comparably very small tracker of
the FASER experiment, which will also give me the opportunity to already
get my hands on some tracker data  before the start of LHC Run-4.