Searching for New Physics with the CMS Experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN

The Particle Physics Group within the College of Engineering, Design and Physical Sciences at Brunel University London, Uxbridge, UK is offering a fully funded Science and Technology Research Council studentship to work on the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment (CMS) at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The studentship will commence on the 1^st of October 2022. The successful candidate will receive a stipend of £18,602 per annum plus payment of their full-time home tuition fees for a maximum of 42 months.

The Particle Physics Group has been carrying out research in experimental particle physics for more than 25 years, with its current focus being the CMS experiment at CERN, the MICE experiment at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and Grid computing for particle physics (GridPP project).

Our CMS group makes a significant contribution to the study of top quark production in proton-proton collisions using CMS data. The group also plays an active role in the maintenance, operation and upgrading of the Silicon Tracker, having contributed to the construction and commissioning of this detector and the current endcap electromagnetic calorimeter.

We are looking to recruit a student to study the production of the top quark in both Standard Model and Beyond the Standard Model scenarios using CMS data from Run 2 & 3 and to contribute to activities related to the upgrade of the current CMS tracking detector.

Successful applicants will also contribute to detector performance studies. A period of long-term attachment at CERN is associated with the CMS studentship.

Find out more about our work: Sensors and Instrumentation Research Group

Eligibility

The studentship last for a maximum of 3.5 years and will include, a possibility of a long-term attachment at CERN is for a year or longer. Only students with at least an Upper Second class BSc, but ideally an MSci/MPhys degree, in Physics or a closely related subject, are eligible for STFC studentships. Experience of C++ or python would be an advantage. This studentship has eligibility criteria relating to UK residency, for full details of the STFC eligibility criteria and other information, please visit the STFC studentship website: http://www.stfc.ac.uk/funding/studentships/.

How to apply

Please submit your application documents (see list below) by 31 May 2022 to the Group Leader, Professor Akram Khan (E: Akram.Khan@brunel.ac.uk T: +441895266519), as soon as possible.

Your up-to-date CV;
Your personal statement (300 to 500 words) summarising your background, skills and experience;
Your Undergraduate/Postgraduate Master’s degree certificate(s) and transcript(s);
Evidence of your English language skills to IELTS 6.5 (or equivalent, 6.0 in all sections), if appropriate;
Contact details for TWO referees, one of whom can be an academic member of staff in the College.

Meet the Supervisor(s)

Akram Khan - Professor Akram Khan is a academic & researcher in the areas of fundamental and applied science. He has published extensively in a wide range of key academic journals. He has worked at most of the leading national laboratories in the world: DESY in Germany, CERN in Switzerland and SLAC in the USA. He read Mathematics and Theoretical Physics for his Bachelors’ degree at St Andrews University, taking his PhD in Experimental Particle Physics at University College London. Akram was a European Research Fellow at CIEMAT in Spain and at CERN in Switzerland, then a Senior Fellow at Edinburgh and Manchester Universities, going on to a faculty position at Stanford University, before joining Brunel University London in 2003. His recent research has been addressing the fundamental questions:'What is the difference between matter and anti-matter?' and 'What new exotic physics processes might help us to address the existing inadequacies of the Standard Model?' As part of his work in the field of applied science he is currently working on developing a novel particle cancer therapy machine in the UK, and on the next generation of internet technologies.'

Related Research Group(s)

Sensors and Instrumentation - Research in detectors, instrumentation, and data analysis methods applied in high energy particle physics, space science, medical imaging, and remote instrumentation and control.