News from the Chair

March 26, 2018: UNM Physics Graduate student Neil McFadden has been selected to receive the US Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) award to pursue his PhD this summer at Los Alamos National Lab with his proposal "Light Yield Studies on Active Veto Schemes for a Tonne Scale 76Ge Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Experiment" on experiments that will search for neutrino-less double-beta decay with germanium detectors.

The neutrino plays a central role in many puzzles in particle physics and cosmology. Future measurements of its properties in both laboratory and space-based experiments hope to resolve many of these puzzles and, possibly, point to new physics beyond the standard model.

Neil is a member of the UNM group (Boyd, Fields, Gibbons, Gold, Loomba and Quintana) which is part of the international Large Enriched Germanium Experiment for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay (LEGEND) collaboration.

Earlier this year, Neil also won the NM Space Grant Scholarship.

The SCGSR recognizes his outstanding academic accomplishments, the merit of his research proposal and reflects his potential to make important contributions to the mission of the DOE Office of Science.

The SCGSR program provides supplemental awards to outstanding U.S. graduate students to pursue part of their graduate thesis research at a DOE laboratory/facility in areas that address scientific challenges central to the Office of Science mission. The research opportunity is expected to advance the graduate students' overall doctoral thesis while providing access to the expertise, resources, and capabilities available at the DOE laboratories/facilities. The award amount is a monthly stipend up to $3,000 for living expenses and an additional $2,000 for travel.

More details at DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Program.

Congratulations, Neil!