I am a Physicist (Program Manager) at the Dept. of Energy (DOE), Office of Science (SC), Office of High Energy Physics. As a physicist, my role is to steer a research frontier of high energy physics in discovery and innovation towards breakthroughs in knowledge that address pressing questions of our universe, and places the US at the vanguard of global leadership in particle physics. In my current role, I am responsible for leading the Intensity Frontier Research Program and the U.S.-Japan Science and Technology Cooperation Program in the Office of High Energy Physics. Researchers in the Intensity Frontier investigate some of the rarest processes in nature, including unusual interactions of fundamental particles and subtle effects that require large data sets to observe and measure. I am also responsible for the Reaching A New Sciences Workforce for High Energy Physics (RENEW-HEP) initiative.
Until the early fall of 2020, I performed research in high energy physics as part of the KOTO collaboration. I investigated flavor physics and CP violation by focusing on the rare decay process of neutral kaons. I am also part of NKS2 collaboration at Tohoku University, Sendai Japan since 2008, where I earned my Ph.D. My research interest focused on kaon physics, primarily on Lepton Flavor Violation in rare particle decays and also on strangeness production by electromagnetic interaction. I am interested in some of the looming questions for which the Standard Model cannot begin to address, nor fully less answer.
Most recently, I was awarded the American Physical Society 2022 (APS) Excellence in Physics Education Award.
In addition to research activities, I am advocate for providing opportunities to underserved and stastitically underrepresented communities in STEM fields, and for inclusive and equitable practices in physics and astronomy.
Features
2024 Featured on Profiles in Excellence on AIP's Team-UP Together.
2020 Featured on SymmetryMagazine.org, The Persevering Physicist.
2018 Featured on FIU Physics Alumni profiles.
2018 Featured in the Michigan Daily, "The struggle for diversity in physics".
2014 Featured in American Institute of Physics (AIP) Physics Today, October edition.
2010 Featured in Florida International University Alumni magazine, Winter edition
2009 Featured in GCOE Scienceweb magazine (Tohoku University), Vol.5 September edition.
Achievements
2024
Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics Annual Performance Award
2023
Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics Annual Performance Award
2022
Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics Annual Performance Award
Awarded the 2022 American Physical Society Excellence in Physics Education Award.
2021
Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics Annual Performance Award
07/2021 Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics On-the-Spot Performance Award
Accepted to the 2021 APS Career Mentoring Fellows program.
2020
Selected as the recipient of U-M Women in Science and Engineering Program's 2020 Claudia Joan Alexander Trailblazer Award.
2018
University of Michigan, Nominated for Willie Hobbs Moore: Mentoring Award.
University of Michigan, MIRA Conversations on Equity and Inclusion Fund - $7K.
California Research Alliance Exchange -$1.5K.
2017
Awarded the University of Michigan President's Postdoctoral Fellowship
Awarded the University of Michigan Collegiate Postdoctoral Fellowship (Declined)
2016
University of Michigan, Nominated for Willie Hobbs Moore: Mentoring Award.
2011
Tohoku Kaihatsu Memorial Foundation Research Fellowship - $5K.
2008
Tohoku University, Graduate Program of Advanced Sciences, Super Doctoral Fellowship - $115K.
Florida International University, Outstanding Achievement as a Graduate Student in Physics. 2007 Florida International University, Graduate Student Symposium Poster Session, 1st Place.
2005
2005 Florida International University, Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Fellowship - $4K.
2005 Florida International University, Summer Research Institute Symposium Poster Session, 3rd Place.
News
01/2023: KOTO new analysis released on the arxiv: Search for the Pair Production of Dark Particles
03/24/2021 KOTO new results are published in Physical Review Letters Study of the KL→π0ν¯ν Decay at the J-PARC KOTO Experiment.
12/2020 Small Feature in the SPS Radiaitions Fall edition
11/9/2020 NEW RESULTS published in NIMA Pulse shape discrimination of photons and neutrons in the energy range of 0.1 – 2 GeV with the KOTO un-doped CsI calorimeter.
9/28/2020 KOTO new results are published in Physical Review D establishing the first upper limit on the ΚL->π0γ decay
9/8/2020 The AIP TEAM-UP report featured in article on insidehighered.com Fostering a Sense of Belonging in STEM.
9/1/2020 Accepted position as Physicist in the Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science (SC), Office of High Energy Physics.
7/30/2020 AIP TEAM-UP report featured in article on SymmetryMagazine.org Boosting the Representation of Black Students.
7/8/2020 AIP TEAM-UP Report featured in Space.com Space has a diversity problem — and big institutions like universities can do something about it
5/15/2020 $200K grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation will fund AIP TEAM-UP workshops to help reach the goal of doubling the number of African American physics and astronomy. undergraduate degree recipients by the year 2030.
2/28/2020 AIP TEAM-UP featured on Forbes.com This is Why There Are So Few Black Physicists and Astronomers (And How to Fix It)
2/21/2020 AIP TEAM-UP featured on NBC news
2/4/2020 KOTO preliminarily results featured in Science News.
2/4/2020 AIP TEAM-UP report discussed in a Physics Todayarticle.
1/14/2020 Featured on Symmetry Magazine.org. The Persevering Physicist
1/5/2020 AIP TEAM-UP Taskforce report has been released and available for download. The TIME IS NOW!
11/2019 AIP Board of Directors unanimously voted to accept the TEAM-UP report as a report of AIP.
9/1/2020 Accepted position as an Assistant Research Scientist in the Department of Physics at the University of Michigan
8/2019: Served as a Convener for 2019 APS DPF Meeting Quark & Lepton Flavor and Diversity & Inclusion sessions
2019 Served as a reviewer for 2019 applications to participate in the Science Alliance Leadership Training(SALT) Workshop hosted by the New York Academy of Sciences.
1/2019 KOTO new results were published in Physical Review Letters establishing a new upper limit on the ΚL->π0νν decay
9/2017-7/2019 Served as Chair of the Department of Physics Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee (DEI), University of Michigan.
8/2018 NKS2 paper published in Nuclear Instrumentation and Methods.
10/2018 AIP TEAM-UP Taskforce in the news: Boosting the number of students from underrepresented groups in physics, Nature, October 2018
2/2017 KOTO first results published in Progress on Theoretical and Experimental Physics
Served as a reviewer for NSF STEM Education Program Proposals.
Featured on FIU Physics Alumni profiles.
6/2016 Near threshold angular distributions for the 2H(γ,Λ)X reaction published in Progress on Theoretical and Experimental Physics
Accepted position as a Research Fellow, as part of the KOTO experiment, in the Department of Physics at the University of Michigan.
Performance test of wavelength-shifting acrylic plastic Cherenkov detector.published in Nucl. Instr. And Methods; Vol. 735; Jan 2014
Accepted position as a Bridge Program Project Manager at The American Physical Society.
The Investigation of Strangeness Photoproduction in the Threshold Region at ELPH-Tohoku. published in Nucl. Phys. A; Vol. 914; 2013.
Events
2025
March 13-17 APS April Meeting, Global Summit, Anaheim CA
May 12-15 US-Japan Research Program Joint Committee Meeting & Symposium, Sapporo Hokaido, Japan
2024
November 13-17, NSBP Annual Conference, Houston TX - Cancelled
June 16-24 Neutrino 24, Milano Italy
May 29-30 US-Japan Research Program Joint Committee Meeting & Symposium, Tsukuba Japan
May 13-17 APS Division of Particles and Fields Meeting.
May 9-10, High Energy Physics Advisory Panel HEPAP Meeting, Washington DC
May 7-8 US-Japan Research Program Joint Panel Meeting, Washington DC
April 18-19, Fermilab Site Visit
April 3-6, 2024 APS April Meeting, Sacremento,CA
February 14-17, 2024 AAS Meeting, Denver, CO
2023
December 7-8, DOE HEPAP Winter Meeting, Washington DC
November 9-12, NSBP Annual Conference, Knoxville TN
October 26-28, SACNAS National Diversity in STEM (NDiSTEM) Conference.
September 27-29, US Belle-II Operations Review, Broohaven National Lab
August 14-16, DOE HEP PI Meeting Virtual Meeting
May 21-27 US-Japan Research Program Joint Committee Meeting & Symposium, Oahu HI
April 19-21 US-Japan Research Program Joint Panel Meeting, J-PARC, Japan
April 15-17, 2023 APS April Meeting, Minneapolis, MN
2022
Nov 10, 2022 Univ. of Virgnia Physics Dept. site visit.
Nov 8-9, 2022 NSBP Conference, Charlottesville VA
July 17-25, 2022 Snowmass Meeting, Seattle, WA
April 9-12, 2022 APS April Meeting, New York
April 14-15, 2022 US-Japan Joint Committee Meeting, SLAC
January 27, 2022 APS Leadership Meeting, Washington DC
2021
August 9-12, 2021 DOE HEP PI Meeting Virtual Meeting
August 4, 2021 FermiLab User's Meeting Career Panel, Fermilab Virtual Meeting
July 30, 2021 Career Panel for Undergraduate Students at MSI, UTenn Knoxville, Virtual Meeting
July 12-14, 2021 APS DPF Meeting Virtual Meeting
April 17-20, 2021 APS April Meeting Virtual Meeting
March 19, 2021 My Path in Physics, Physics Seminar (Invited) University of the Virgin Islands
February 2, 2021 Bard High School, BLM: A Day of Action, Underrepresented Minorities in STEM Panel.
February 18-21, 2021 APS NMC Meeting Virtual Meeting
2020
November 5-8, 2020 NSBP Meeting "Achieving the Vision: From First Principles to the Future." Virtual Meeting
November 5, 2020 "Careers Paths of Physics." FIU Virtual talk
November 5, 2020 "The road less traveled,
A brief tale of the path I took." FIU Virtual talkJuly 3-5, 2020, KOTO Collaboration Meeting, Virtual Meeting
April 18-21, 2020 APS April Meeting Washington D.C. Virtual Meeting
April 13, Physics Seminar, Indiana University (POSTPONED)
April 2, Physics Seminar, Brandies University (POSTPONED)
March 30, Physics Seminar, Stony Brook (POSTPONED)
March 27, 2020 Physics Colloquium, University of New Hampshire (POSTPONED)
March 12-13, 2020 Florida International University (POSTPONED)
February 26, 2020 Physics Seminar, Morgan State University
2019
December 10-17, 2019, KOTO Collaboration Meeting, Jeonbuk National University, Republic of Korea
November 21,Physics Department NPA Seminar, Yale University
November 13, Physics Department Colloquium, University of Michigan
November 6-7, Physics Department Seminar, UCLA
October 28, 2019, Physics Department Seminar, Virginia Union University
October 29, 2019, Physics Department Seminar, George Washington University
October 18, 2019 AIP TEAM-UP Meeting, College Park, MD
October 14-17, 2019, APS DNP Meeting, Crystal City, VA
September 10-13 KAON 2019 Conference, University of Perugia, Perugia Italy
July 29-August 2, 2019 APS DPF Meeting Northeastern University
July 22- July 27, 2019 Osaka University
July 10 -July 22, 2019 GPPU Seminar at Tohoku University, Sendai Japan
June 17, 2019, AIP TEAM-UP Meeting, American Center for Physics
May 8, 2019, Experimental Particle Physics Seminar University of Pennsylvania
April 30, 2019, High Energy Physics Seminar Michigan State University
April 13-16, 2019 APS April Meeting Denver, CO
February 28-April 7, 2019, KOTO Experimental period, JPARC, Japan
2018
December 11-18, 2018, KOTO Collaboration Meeting, JPARC Japan
December 5, 2018, High Energy Physics Seminar University of Virginia
November 16-18, 2018 APS Bridge Program/NMC conference, Google Headquarters, Stanford, CA
November 12-13, 2018, Physics Colloquium, University of Tennessee
November 2, 2018, Physics SSTEM Seminar, Florida International University
October 21-29, APS/JPS Joint DNP Meeting, Hawaii.
October 12, 2018, Fermilab Joint Experimental-Theoretical Seminar ("Wine and Cheese")
July 7-10, 2018, International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP)
June-July, 2018, KOTO Experimetal Upgrade, JPARC, Japan
Conference, Seoul Korea
April 14-17, 2018 APS April Meeting Denver, CO
April 2, 2018, Physics HEP Seminar, University of Michigan
February, 2018, KOTO Experimental period, JPARC, Japan
January 17, 2018, Physics Seminar, Howard University, Washington DC
2017
July 31- August 4, 2017 APS DPF Meeting Fermilab
July 5-11, 2017, KOTO Collaboration Meeting, Hong Kong
July 29-August 2, 2019 APS DPF Meeting Northeastern University
February 21, 2017, Physics SPS Seminar, University of Michigan
February 10-12, 2017 APS Joint Graduate Education and Bridge Program Conference, College Park, MD
January 27-31, 2017 APS April Meeting. Washington D.C.
January 24, 2017, SLAC Experimental Seminar, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
January 23, 2017, Physics Diversity and Inclusion Seminar, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
January 4-10, 2017, KOTO Collaboration Meeting, Taipei
2016
November 14, 2016, Department of Physics SSTEM Seminar, Florida International University
November 8, 2016, Department of Physics Seminar, University of Cincinnati
November 5, 2016, Department of Physics Seminar, Valparaiso University
August 6, 2018, 38th International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP), Chicago, IL
2015
A Taste of Miami: Motivation and opportunities to attend graduate school (Keynote Speaker)
October 14-16, 2015, 2nd Annual FIU McNair Scholars Research Conference, Miami, Florida
September 25, 2015, University of Michigan, Life after Graduate School Seminar, Ann Arbor
July 25-29, 2015, Invited talk: AAPT Summer Conference, College Park, Maryland
June 17-19, 2015 Invited talk: Inclusive Astronomy Conference, Nashville, Tennessee