News

Queen Mary University of London's Abbey Waldron, Lecturer in Particle Physics, has been appointed as co-spokesperson (one of two scientific leaders) of MINERvA, a significant international particle physics experiment.

Based at Fermilab near Chicago, MINERvA investigates how neutrinos interact with a range of nuclei in materials spanning from lead to helium. The experiment has conducted the most extensive series of neutrino-nucleus scattering measurements ever undertaken.

"I am honoured to take on this new role alongside co-spokesperson Prof Rik Gran," said Dr Waldron. "As a collaboration, we are at an incredibly exciting time, with numerous analyses underway and our data preservation efforts progressing. We also continue to welcome new students and maintain a high success rate for students pursuing careers in the field. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to former co-spokesperson Prof Deborah Harris for her outstanding leadership of the experiment over the past fifteen years."

The Queen Mary team plays a leading role in many of the experiment's analyses and contributes significantly to its core data processing and preservation tasks. The MINERvA detector will also form part of the upcoming long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment DUNE and Queen Mary PhD student Akeem Hart is leading the data acquisition effort for this.