My Journey as a Physicist

Dr. Allena Opper (she/her) National Science Foundation I am a nuclear physicist and have done experiments at laboratories across north America. I’ve been a professor at Ohio University and George Washington University. Since 2014 I have had the honor and privilege of serving as a program director of the National Science Foundation’s Nuclear Physics Program. During the pandemic I did a few online “...

I am a Chinese-American physicist, and I love gardening, cooking, walking and music. I have joint appointments between Brookhaven National Lab and Duke University. I am an experimentalist, who uses electrons and photons as microscopes to look deeper and deeper inside protons and neutrons, which are the building blocks of atomic nuclei, to advance our understanding about the structure of visible ma...

I am an experimentalist working the field of nuclear and particle physics. I am a SUNY Distinguished Professor at Stony Brook University. I also serve as the Electron Ion Collier (EIC) Science Director at BNL and Director of the Center for Frontiers in Nuclear Science (CFNS). I like to use “spin” as a tool to investigate and understand nature — thus I always use polarized beams or targets. I have...

I am a theoretical physicist at Michigan Sate University working on nuclear science. I am a mother. I really enjoy interacting with people and nature. My research is on the theory for nuclear reactions, particularly those involving rare isotopes. I have an inquisitive mind, and research give me the tools for find answers. The long range plan is a mechanism for the research community to coalesce on...

I am an experimental nuclear physicist at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse, and I also love traveling and playing fetch with my dog. I work on the vibrations (structure) of rare-earth nuclei. The other area is on the intersection of nuclear science and society. Analysis is a big puzzle to solve, which I love. The nuclear community is a very welcoming and supportive community and that is why I...

I am a nuclear physicist at LLNL and UC Davis, involved in APS leadership and I run far-ish. My research involves both heavy flavor production, mostly in cold nuclear matter, and the phenomenology of nuclear fission. I love the challenge of doing physics and the rush of understanding something new. I am on the Long Range Plan writing committee, the NSAC Nuclear Data subcommittee and Secretary-Trea...

I am an experimental nuclear physicist at MIT. I like hiking and skiing on the weekends with my husband, three kids and our dog (the two cats usually stay home). My work centers on specialized experiments that make use of novel technology from quantum sensors to deep learning to push the bounds of what is measurable. The work is driven by big questions about the formation of our universe and how p...

I'm a theoretical physicist at the Institute for Nuclear Theory at the University of Washington, and I also (try to) play guitar. I work on low-energy probes of physics beyond the Standard Model. I like to challenge the Standard Model and look for cracks in its fabric: at times it can be quite suspenseful, like a mystery novel. My Journey as a Physicist is brought to you by PhD student Bryan Stanl...

I am a physicist at Texas A&M University focusing on experimental nuclear physics, and I also like playing tennis and golf, fishing and reading books. I use particle accelerators to study structure of atomic nuclei and nuclear reactions relevant for nucleosynthesis in stars. I love what I do because my experiments help advance general understanding of nuclei and origin of elements in the unive...

I am a theoretical nuclear astrophysicist at the University of Notre Dame interested in the formation of the elements. I am also the mother of one daughter and doting aunt to eleven nieces and nephews. My work combines the nuclear theory of heavy nuclei, experimental results from radioactive isotope experiments, and astrophysical observations to understand how the heaviest elements are synthesized...

I am a theoretical nuclear physicist. I like running, painting, photography, fixing things, some gardening, traveling, and electronic music. I work on describing all aspects of heavy ion collisions to learn about the properties of matter, and am also moving toward studying collisions of electrons with nuclei, which can for example provide detailed insight into how gluons arrange and interact insid...

I am a Chinese American Physicist at the University of Virginia and a mother of three. I like running, swimming, painting, gardening, and trying new things. I used to play volleyball in college. I don't like singing. I do Experimental Nuclear and Particle Physics with a focus on Electron Scattering. I like that all the number crunching and figure making have a higher meaning behind. Long Range Pla...

I am a medium energy experimentalist (otherwise known these days as cold QCD) and I am also the Dean of the College of Sciences at ODU. I do experiments related to understanding the structure of the nucleon (unpolarized as well as polarized), at Jefferson Lab. This type of research takes a long time, but I love it because the questions about the nature of matter are interesting and working with st...

Season 2 Episode 12 I am an American theoretical particle physicist of Indian origin, and I also enjoy hiking, travel, and meditation. I study theories of the origin of electroweak symmetry breaking and flavor physics, and their possible signatures at high-energy colliders. I love using mathematical tools and models to understand and make predictions about the physical world around us. I serve as...

"I am a high energy experimental physicist, searching for new fundamental particles using the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. My work is split between data analysis, where I focus on the application of novel machine learning methods such as anomaly detection to enhance our discovery potential, and detector development, namely upgrading the readout electronics for the liquid a...

Season 2 Episode 10 Professor Soares-Santos’ research aims to uncover the nature of the accelerated expansion of the cosmos. Her team detected the first neutron star collision ever observed, a discovery heralded as the Science breakthrough of the year 2017. She was awarded the prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship in 2019 and the Cottrell Scholar Award in 2021. Her research has been featured in ma...

Season 2 Episode 9 I am a theoretical particle physicist, specializing in collider phenomenology, a theoretical branch that builds the bridge between theory and experimental observations. To explore new physics beyond the Standard Model, I formulate theoretical models and predict observables at colliders as well as at low energy experiments. The topics I have been interested in include Higgs boson...

Season 2 Episode 8 I am a Black physicist, originally from Togo. I enjoy playing Djembe and swimming. I do research on the ATLAS experiment searching for dark sector states beyond the standard model of particle physics. I love working with people, learning from them and getting my ideas challenged. Through Snowmass, I've met and worked many new people; that won't have been possible otherwise. My J...

Season 2 Episode 7 I am an Asian-Indian American Physicist, who traveled from Gorakhpur, UP, India and finally settled in Providence, RI USA, with my German husband and two sons. I am passionate about cooking and organizing events which meld scientific concepts with arts and music. My research focuses on investigating the early universe moments after the Big Bang created in small and large particl...

Season 2 Episode 6   I am a Romanian-born German-Swiss astroparticle physicist and I also enjoy reading poetry, hiking and kayaking on Swiss lakes. My research is focused on the direct detection of particle dark matter with xenon time projection chambers and on the search for neutrinoless double beta decay with enriched germanium crystals operated in liquid argon. I love the fact that these r...

Season 2 Episode 5   I am a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory physicist, and I also enjoy running and squirrel watching. I develop and deploy computational techniques to explore the fundamental and emergent properties of the strong force. Machine learning and other computational techniques build bridges between areas of physics and beyond. As a co-convener for the Computational Frontier a...

Season 2 Episode 4   I'm particle physicist who was born in the UK, grew up in Canada and now lives in Durham, North Carolina; I also enjoy fossils, hiking, and sitting on my porch. I study neutrinos, and work on several  experiments--- COHERENT at the Spallation Neutron Source, the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment and Super-Kamiokande-- to look for physics beyond the standard model...

Season 2 Episode 3   I am an experimental collider physicist, who specializes on detector instrumentation, and I also love traveling, reading, movies, jigsaw puzzles, listening to live music and learning to play the piano. In the past I have been involved in the Higgs boson discovery, but now I specialize on designing and building silicon trackers and on  coordinating generic detector R&...

Season 2 Episode 2   I am a particle physicist at Wayne State University. I also like art. My research is on application of effective field theories to particle physics phenomenology. I love my research because I get to understand why the Universe is the way it is.   Snowmass is an important exercise that will shape the vision for the future of particle physics in the US.   My Journ...

Season 2 Episode 1 I am an experimental particle physicist, and when I'm not doing that I'm trying to teach myself to take pictures and cook. My research is focused on searching for Hidden Sector extensions to the Standard Model, mostly by looking for evidence of long-lived massive particles. I love the opportunity that physics gives me to explore the internal  workings of the world around me...