My research is in particle physics, studying the tiniest building blocks of the universe and how those building blocks interact. My research is conducted at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at CERN.
I am particlularly interested in understanding how the fundamental particles acquire mass. With the recent discovery of a new particle consistent with the Higgs boson, we could be close to an answer. However, much work remains.
At CMS, the members of my research group work on the search for and characterization of the Higgs boson. Our work focuses on two Higgs production modes: Higgs produced in association with a top-quark pair (ttH) and decaying to b quarks, and direct Higgs production decaying to a pair of W bosons. These studies play an important role in the overall Higgs campaign at the LHC. I am a member of the LHC Higgs Cross Sections Working Group, serving as co-leader of the ttH subgroup.
I am also interested in measurements of the production and decay of the top quark; given the top-quark's large mass, it could play an interesting role in the generation of particle masses, as well as providing a window to other yet-unseen phenomena. In 2010-13, I served as co-convener of the CMS top-quark cross sections subgroup, helping coordinate all the measurements on top-quark pair production at CMS. The papers and preliminary results of the subgroup can be found here.