Ryan Bouabid of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Physics division received the Springer Thesis Prize for outstanding doctoral research in the physical sciences. He conducted part of his dissertation research at Los Alamos through the Department of Energy's Office of Science Graduate Student Research program and earned his doctorate from Duke University.
Bouabid’s dissertation, “Tests of the effective weak interaction with the world’s smallest neutrino detector,” will be published in the Springer Theses book series. Particles called neutrinos are produced by the sun, fission reactors, particle accelerators and even bananas, but because of their neutrality and low mass, neutrinos very rarely interact with other particles.
This kind of research can reveal new physics beyond the standard model and improve scientists’ understanding of fundamental particle behavior relevant to nuclear and particle science missions.
What he did: Neutrinos are famously elusive particles, but Bouabid helped develop the world’s smallest neutrino detector (each one is a germanium crystal that looks like a stout cylindrical candle that's only a few inches tall), which he then used to study how these subatomic particles interact with matter and to probe fundamental physics beyond the standard model. For some of the work that appeared in his thesis, Bouabid collaborated with Los Alamos scientists from Theoretical and Physics divisions.
What’s next: Now a postdoctoral research associate at Los Alamos, Bouabid has joined the Weak Interactions team in Physics division’s Dynamic Imaging and Radiography group to study neutrino properties, via neutrinoless double-beta decay, as a member of the LEGEND collaboration.
Editor’s note: Nobel laureate Frederick Reines was inspired to hunt for neutrinos at Los Alamos in the 1950s and proved the particles’ existence with colleague Clyde Cowan.
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