Computational (astro) particle physicist. Hired in 2018 as part of Rice's Data Science Initiative and Cosmology efforts. He runs the Astroparticle Lab that is a founding member of experimental collaborations that led the search for dark matter (XENON100, XENON1T, XENONnT, XLZD) by using liquid xenon detectors in Gran Sasso National Laboratory to detect the dark matter wind. He uses dark matter detectors as a platform to explore neutrino physics, where has is or has been part of the DUNE, SNEWS, nuSTORM, and SNO collaborations.
WEBSITE(S)| Ken Kennedy Institute
Research Areas
His research interests are related to computational challenges in physics, including data analysis, simulations, statistics, and machine learning applications. As a professor in both Computer Science and Physics & Astronomy, his students get trained in both departments such that they can perform translational computer science to leverage computational developments to facilitate new types of physics measurements. Within experimental efforts, their machine learning efforts focus on uncertainty quantification. With the University of Leiden, he founded with them the POLONAISE experiment in 2024 that pushes the boundaries of using quantum sensing for dark matter detection. The Rice group focuses on the computational modeling, statistical methods, and phenomenological techniques necessary to perform precision particle-physics measurements using an entirely new detector technology. In 2016, he received the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics along with his other collaborators on the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. He received an NSF CAREER award in 2021. His work is supported by both the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy. He has been involved in service to the university in a range of capacities. He serves since 2024 on the University's AI committee, and also it's subcommittee on Ethical AI. From 2020 until 2024, we was a member of the Ken Kennedy Institute's Faculty Advisory Board.
Education
2008 BS Physics, UT Austin
DPhil Partical Physics, University of Oxford