In my undergraduate and PhD research I studied neutrino physics, working on the prototype for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (ProtoDUNE) experiment at CERN, studying hadron interactions with liquid Argon. Understanding these interactions is important for the precise measurements anticipated to test things like charge and parity violation by neutrinos.
At Columbia my research has shifted to gamma-ray and anti-matter observations, an exciting field with many open questions. The field lies at the intersection of particle physics and astronomy, since most gamma-rays are produced my nuclear and particle processes. They open a whole new approach to studying fundamental physics where things such as supernova create environments that can produce particles in quantities which dwarfs anything achievable by terrestrial particle accelerators.
I work on the GRAMS experiment which will make a short balloon flight to demonstrate the hardware and science capabilities. The long term goal is to develop a satellite which could collect data over a longer period of time, with more sensitivity to gamma-rays and anti-matter, in the under-studied 0.1-100MeV range, than current experiments. This will create the possibility of many exciting searches for gamma-ray sources and beyond the standard model (BSM) physics.
My interests are in the design, implementation of the data acquisition and trigger systems, and efficiently dealing with the high data rates from the detector. Additionally, I am interested in leveraging the increased sensitivity of the experiment to test BSM models involving neutrinos and dark matter.