Personal profile

Educational background

I obtained my BSc in Physics at Universite de Montreal in 1995. I did my PhD at Cornell University working on the CLEO detector, performing a precise measurement of the CKM element Vub. I was awarded a CERN fellowship in 2002 and worked on both ATLAS and RD50 at that time. I was then awarded a Marshak Fellowship at the University of Rochester to work on the CDF detector on top quark physics. I joined RHUL as a lecturer in 2007.

Personal profile

I was invited to participate in the 2011 Royal Holloway, University of London Women in Research Lecture Series.

Research interests

My research is in Particle Physics, working on the ATLAS detector, located at CERN. I specialize on top quark physics. The top quark is the most massive particle discovered so far and as such it has a special relationship with the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism, whether this is the Higgs mechanism or something else. I am interested in the rich topology of the top quarks and in particular I am an expert in various methods to identify jets originating from b quarks .

I am also involved in the ATLAS upgrade, which is likely to happen after 10 years of LHC running. At that point we will replace the trigger in its entirety and I am interested in studying whether it will be possible to trigger on electrons and muons using tracking information at the lowest level of trigger, in hardware.

Finally, I am interested in future colliders, especially a future e+e- linear collider which would provide precision measurements of the top quark as well as the Higgs boson.

I am also very interested in climate change science and renewable energy topics.

Teaching

While starting at RHUL I have lectured PH2130, the 2nd year Math courses for physicists for five years and since 2012 I am the PH3520: Particle Physics lecturer. I am also a tutor and I supervise BSc and MSci final year projects. I am also the 2nd year Lab coordinator.

My administrative duties have included being Senior Tutor, chair of the Curriculum Development Group, being the Research and Resources Committee secretary, being the Outreach Coordinator, being the chair of the Women in Physics group and being the Admissions Tutor (2014, 2015, 2016).

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
  • SDG 13 - Climate Action

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or