I am working to understand the basic building blocks of our universe, and
the forces that cause them to interact and create the complex structures that
we see as atoms, molecules, and more macroscopic objects.
In the past several decades, the Standard Model of the
electroweak and strong forces has become the theory that appears to
successfully describe the matter around us, and provides an
excellent description of the electromagnetic, weak and strong forces.
My research focuses on experimental tests of this model by studying particle
interactions at very high energies.
My work today is focused on measurements at the Large Hadron Collider, where
we are able to collide particles together at the highest energies possible.
I am a member of the ATLAS collaboration, an intimate and collegial group of 3,000
of my closest colleagues.
Together, we have built and operated the
ATLAS
detector, using it to record
the 13 TeV proton-proton collisions created by the LHC.
My work from 1986 to about 2008 was focused on similar sorts of collisions
created by the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, but at a lower energy of 2 TeV and
recorded by the
CDF
detector.
My specific interest has been the top quark, the most massive particle in the
Standard Model.
My group was involved in its discovery, and has participated in many of the
first measurements of its properties.
We are now using the top quark as a tool
to search for evidence of new, very massive particles that preferentially decay to
top quark pairs.
This work is currently using
ATLAS
data.
The Standard Model has many "holes" in it -- it doesn't tell us what Dark Matter is, it doesn't help us understand gravity, it doesn't tell us why there are so many
different types of quarks and leptons, and it doesn't tell us why we appear to
live in a matter-dominated universe.
I'd like to fill in answers to some of these fundamental questions, and hope to
do so using data we will collect with ATLAS over the next several years.
Detector R & D
My hardware interests have been data acqusition
technologies for hadron collider detectors, digital front-end
electronics systems, and off-line software development.
Much of this work is performed in close collaboration
with groups in Canada and the US with similar interests.
I have been also been involved in the development of pixel detectors for the
ATLAS detector, the development of a precision positioning system for
tracker detectors and the construction and calibration of calorimeters, which
measure the energy of the particles produced in the collisions we record.
Statistical Techniques in Particle Physics
I have been involved in the development and use of advanced statistical
techniques in particle physics, with particular emphasis on multivariate
analyses and setting confidence intervals.
I wrote a
report
describing the statistical techniques used to
make the most precise estimate of the top quark production cross section.
I have also written a
review article
on the use of "significance" in
particle physics analyses.
My earlier work involved the development of the SLAC/LBL Partial Wave
Analysis system (see my thesis for more details!) and the first searches
for the top quark on this side of the Atlantic.
