We study the results of particle collisions at the Large Hadron Collider with the goal of unlocking the mysteries of the fundamental nature of the universe. Our main tool is the ATLAS experiment, but we're also working on developing a new, exciting detector called MATHUSLA, which would help us search for new, beyond the Standard Model particles that existing experiments are not very well-placed to discover. Interested in joining? Check out opportunities listed below, and on the Victoria Subatomic Physics and Accelerator Research Centre (VISPA) webpage: VISPA.
Dr. Heather Russell
Heather received an undergraduate degree in physics at UVic in 2009, an MSc in theoretical physics from the Perimeter Institute in 2011, and a PhD from the University of Washington in 2016. Her research interests include measuring rare Standard Model processes (hoping they reveal hints of beyond the SM particles!) and searching for new physics with long-lived particles. She is involved in both the ATLAS and MATHUSLA collaborations. One of the main questions that motivates her work is understanding the origins of the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe. In her spare time, Heather enjoys skiing, hiking, and cycling. She's also an alto in the Victoria Choral Society and is slowly learning how to play the violin.
Dr. Caleb Miller
Caleb holds an IPP 50th Anniversary Connect Postdoctoral Fellowship. He works on the MATHUSLA experiment at UVic, where we are constructing a prototype module. As part of his fellowship, he also works 50% with SFU on P-ONE.
Dr. John McGowan
John is a postdoctoral researcher based at CERN. He works on the ATLAS experiment.
Marina Stefanyk
Marina is an MSc working on a phenomenology study involving new physics that could be discovered in vector boson scattering measurements at the LHC
Mitch Kelly
Mitch is a PhD student is working on the ATLAS experiment.
Kyle Lau
Kyle is a PhD student is working on the ATLAS experiment.
Denaisha Kraft
Denaisha works on charged Higgs boson searches at the ATLAS experiment. She recently completed the IPP summer student program, which allowed her to spend two months at CERN!
Trystan Humphrey
Trystan is an undergraduate honours thesis student working on performing tracking algorithm studies for the MATHUSLA prototype and upgrading the prototype's DAQ system.
your photo here!
If you're interested in joining our research group for either undergraduate or graduate studies, please fill out this form.
For undergraduate students, a list of funding opportunities is maintained on the UVic Physics department website. The Institute for Particle Physics (IPP) also has a summer fellowship that allows you to spend two months in Canada and two months at CERN doing the CERN Summer Student program. Most of these summer research opportunities have deadlines early in the calendar year, so if you want to discuss opportunities please reach out as early as you can (i.e. during the Fall semester)!
For graduate students, please see the "how to apply" page on the UVic Physics page, which has details about the application details and deadlines. You don't need to have chosen or even spoken to a potential supervisor before applying, but it can help. If you want to apply for an NSERC MSc scholarships, please contact me in October of the year you'd like to apply - the deadline is December 1st.
Open postdoctoral researcher positions will be advertised on inspre and on the VISPA website. I am also happy to sponsor applications for NSERC postgraduate fellowships or other funding opportunities, such as the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Postdoctoral Fellowships for European nationals.
Shreya's research involved looking for a new Higgs-like light particle decaying into muons, and produced in association with a top quark pair. She previously completed her PhD from McGill University in 2022. In the past, she has been involved with the ATLAS Trigger, and lepton flavour universality studies in B-Physics. She is an outreach enthusiast, and participates in particle physics masterclasses and has worked as a tour guide at CERN. Apart from physics, she is also a Bharatanatyam dancer, and in her leisure time, she enjoy dancing, experimenting in the kitchen, and travelling around the world. She's currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Adelaide.
Zoe Hallman
Ash Samra
Bennett Winnicky-Lewis
Branden Aitken
Branden worked on the MATHUSLA experiment. He's helped to construct the prototype module at UVic and characterise the different scintillators, wavelength-shifting fibres, and silicon photomultipliers we're using in the prototype. He completed his honours project on a study of vertex selection criteria that would allow MATHUSLA to separate long-lived, right-handed neutrino decays from SM neutrino interactions. He's now a master's student in theoretical physics at UVic.
Sarah Alshimaily
Kyran Klazek-Schryer
Marisa Sheppard