Fermilab scientist Matt Toups elected new co-spokesperson of MicroBooNE

The MicroBooNE neutrino experiment is entering a new phase of life. With data collection recently completed, the collaboration is now focused on analysis, peering into six years’ worth of data to better understand neutrinos. As of Feb. 7, 2022, the collaboration also has new leadership. Matt Toups, a scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, was elected co-spokesperson. He joined Justin Evans of the University of Manchester in leading the experiment.

“We’re entering this phase in the collaboration where we’re hitting our stride in terms of reconstructing the data, making sense out of it and putting out premiere physics results that the community can really sink their teeth into,” said Toups. “I think it’s our golden era of physics results.”

Toups earned his doctorate from Columbia University, focusing on the behavior of neutrinos from nuclear reactors in the Double Chooz experiment for his thesis. He began working on MicroBooNE electronics in 2012 as a postdoctoral researcher at MIT and then co-led commissioning of the MicroBooNE detector. Toups has served as physics analysis coordinator since the experiment came online in 2015. He currently also works on the Short-Baseline Near Detector and Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, international projects hosted by Fermilab that will build off of MicroBooNE’s discoveries and expertise in liquid-argon detector technology.

“Matt has an incredible wealth of experience in MicroBooNE — in how the detector works, in the physics that we are doing, and in working with the world-class people who make up our collaboration,” Evans said. “He has provided leadership for many years and was central to the first searches for a low-energy excess that we recently published. I am delighted to be working with him now as co-spokesperson, and we have an exciting time ahead of us.”

MicroBooNE is a 170-ton neutrino detector about the size of an American school bus, and one of three experiments in Fermilab’s short-baseline (or short-distance) neutrino program. MicroBooNE’s cutting-edge technology can record incredibly precise 3D images of neutrino events, providing detailed information about how these elusive particles interact. Almost 200 collaborators from 37 institutions in five countries work on the experiment.

Using about half of their data, collaborators released their first flagship neutrino results in fall 2021. The exciting result all but ruled out two of the most likely causes for an experimental anomaly that has remained unexplained for two decades. As researchers continue to analyze their data, they’ll turn to different and sometimes more exotic options, including physics that lies beyond the current best theory: the Standard Model.

MicroBooNE’s cutting-edge technology can record incredibly precise 3D images of neutrino events, providing detailed information about how these elusive particles interact.

“There’s a lot of interesting physics topics to explore,” Toups said, noting that in recent workshops, MicroBooNE researchers collaborated with theorists on possible explanations for their data and generated new ideas for physics analyses. “It’s great to see the creativity of the collaboration coming through with new ideas, and it’s exciting because they’re things our detector is capable of probing.”

In addition to physics analysis, the MicroBooNE team will also be working on how best to integrate the knowledge and tools developed for their experiment into the neutrino detectors coming online over the next few years. Together, the suite of experiments will better understand one of the strangest particles and the fundamental nature of our universe.

“We’re seeing the power of liquid-argon detectors to do this sophisticated physics and search for new phenomena and answer some of these lingering questions,” Toups said. “It’s exhilarating.”

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.

 

How long have you been at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory?

I have been with Fermilab for almost seven years. I’m still considered a newbie in the Fermilab world. I came to Fermilab from another non-profit organization. In finance and accounting, I am specifically the Fermi Research Alliance accounting manager and also currently adding sponsored programs to the mix. FRA manages Fermilab for the Department of Energy. I work on all financial aspects of FRA, the more salient areas being financial statements, reports for DOE, tax returns, budgets, reports for the board of directors and the recent addition of sponsored programs.

How did you get into accounting?

I come from a family of CPAs, so I guess it was kind of inevitable that I would end up being a CPA, working in finance and accounting. I’ve always been a math person, and math transitions well into finance and accounting. Accounting crosses all industries, and that’s the field I have been in since I graduated college.

My family emigrated from Jamaica for more opportunities when I was in my teens. I now have two college-aged daughters who are pursuing degrees that would not have necessarily been available to them there. So it warms my heart to see them pursuing avenues that were not on my radar when I was young. It means it’s the end of the CPA generation in my family, but I’m happy they can pursue what they enjoy. I hope that feeling continues for them throughout their careers, as it does for me.

I originally started out in public accounting, then transitioned to corporate accounting, and then stepped into non-profit. I do like the different types of non-profit organizations that are out there. Fermilab is considered one of the epitomes of a non-profit organization, so I was very excited to come on board here.

What does you work consist of?

For example, this week, in terms of projects, I met the deliverable for one of DOE’s annual reports earlier this week. Now I have to switch gears and start working on the two IRS tax returns that are due. Specifically, one of them literally takes months because of the input required, not only from me, but from other areas of the lab. So, although I’ll be working on those two tax returns, I also have to work on my regular, day-to-day responsibilities as they come up.

What is the most challenging part of your work?

Sometimes the challenge is that what may be a high priority for you or for me might not be a high priority for someone else — and rightfully so because they have their own responsibilities and priorities. So, at times, the challenge is working with individuals so that we can come to a common place on the timing. I have to say, most often than not, it works out well because there are really good people at Fermilab, and as you know, people make the difference in your job.

Who do you interact with the most?

I interact with a variety of people including co-workers, University of Chicago, URA, DOE representatives and board members. I don’t interact as much as I’d like to with the actual scientists and research people. But that’s OK because I know I’m here supporting them so that they don’t have to worry too much about the financial areas, which means they can concentrate on the success of their research and projects.

Do you get lots of pushback about funding?

That’s always a conversation — and that’s not different from any other company or organization out there. It’s rare that you have a company or organization that has money to blow or can spend on anything they want. So yes, there are conversations about funding, but it’s not uncommon for any type of industry to have that kind of concern.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I like to ride my bike, and I like to travel, although, as we all know, that’s been curtailed to some degree. But I have high hopes for this spring and summer. I also like to watch tennis and listen to music, of course. Love going to live music; that’s always fun.

Which tennis tournament would you head to first?

I would pick Wimbledon because literally I’ve been trying for two years to get to Wimbledon — hotel booked, flight, everything. Last year and in 2020, I had to cancel because of COVID related issues. So I’m determined one day to do that. But I’m not snubbing my nose at any of the other majors. I would go to the Australian Open in a heartbeat or the French Open, and I’ve been to the U.S. Open a number of times.

What type of music do you love?

I’d say that I pretty much like most types of music. These days, I’m leaning more toward jazz, but I could switch to reggae in a matter of seconds. I went to a jazz club, called Winter’s, in Chicago a couple months ago. It was a quintet with saxophone. They were from the South, and I thoroughly enjoyed that; they were really good.

What’s a part of your routine you cherish?

Every morning, whether I’m at work or at home, I have to have my two large cups of hot coffee. I don’t guzzle them — they get to room temperature — so then I end up with coffee that’s not hot. Co-workers are used to seeing me go to the microwave to heat up my coffee in the mornings. I’ve been told I am a slow drinker. But no, I like to think that I savour my coffee.

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.

 

Physics research is a global endeavor — and this year, so was the Fermilab virtual open house. More than 12,000 science fans from 35 countries tuned in as the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory hosted its 18^th Family Open House from Feb. 9-13, featuring a combination of live and on-demand content.

“This was our second year of hosting the open house virtually, and we were able to take what people were most interested in last year and translate that to this year’s program,” said Amanda Early, Fermilab senior education program leader. “We’ve built this community of people from around the world who want to hear from us, and we’re already talking about ways to incorporate some of the best virtual elements into future events.”

The program aimed to bring physics from the lab to the living room and included a variety of events and activities. There were tours of the Fermilab site and of the Muon g-2 experiment, which made international headlines in 2021 when muons were found behaving in ways scientists hadn’t predicted.

“We were able to see parts of the magnet you couldn’t see even in an in-person tour,” Early said. “It gives people a different view of how complex these experiments are, and how many people have to work together to make this science happen.”

Presenters gave talks on how to build big science experiments, what the world would be like without an atmosphere, and on the intersection of art and science at the lab. For the youngest scientists, Fermilab staff read children’s books during the popular STEM story time.

Classroom presentations explored machines, energy, cosmic rays, the night sky and STEM careers. Demos were also popular: Mr. Freeze showed the coolest aspects of cryogenics; two demo makers tackled a box of mystery ingredients during the Iron Scientist competition; and high school students contributed their own demo videos as part of a virtual physics carnival.

On-demand content included a virtual tour of the quantum lab, interviews with Fermilab employees about their work, short talks in the Pecha Kucha style, and the launch of Fermilab’s bison cam.

An array of virtual events brought Fermilab physics to more than 12,000 participants in 35 countries. The 2022 Fermilab Family Open House included tours, talks, demos, classroom visits and more.

The virtual art gallery, “Be a part of pARTicles 2.0,” returned for its second year at the open house. Artists in 17 different countries took inspiration from science and created paintings, photographs, digital images, shock fossils, woodcuts, LEDs and other works. New this year was a Youth Gallery, featuring works by young artists — including an entire classroom of students in Turkey.

Many of the events and activities are still available to watch and can be accessed from the Fermilab Family Open House website or on the lab’s Office of Education and Public Engagement’s YouTube channel.

The annual open house is one of many ways that Fermilab strives to get people excited about physics. Other efforts include the Arts and Lecture Series, teacher workshops, classroom visits and educational series, such as Ask-A-Scientist and the Saturday Morning Physics — both of which have seen increased participation while virtual. The combined programs reach more than 100,000 people every year.

“Making these connections is pretty awesome, especially because you have a chance to show people there’s a place in STEM for them,” Early said, reflecting on a how a fourth-grade girl beamed when a female engineer answered her question in the Ask-An-Engineer session. “Maybe she grows up to be an engineer at the lab. You never know what kind of spark you’re going to have with somebody.”

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.

 

In ninth grade, Patty McBride wrote a homework assignment about what she wanted to be when she grew up.

“I wanted to be a musician, set designer or nuclear physicist,” she said. “I wrote a little homework assignment about what it would be like to be a physicist.”

McBride grew up in a small town where “nuclear physicist” was an atypical career choice. She remembers the teacher commenting on her essay and saying that — while it was very well written — she was skeptical about McBride’s scientific aspirations.

McBride not only became a physicist, but she will now lead one of the largest scientific collaborations in history: the CMS experiment, which collects and studies particle collision data from the Large Hadron Collider at the international laboratory CERN.

CMS is a five-story-tall particle detector at the LHC, located just outside Geneva, Switzerland, and 300 feet underground. The international CMS collaboration comprises 3,000 scientists from more than 40 countries across the world. About a third of the scientists come from institutions in the United States. Every other year, the CMS collaboration elects a new spokesperson for a two-year term. The spokesperson is responsible for guiding CMS’s technical and scientific endeavors, as well as representing the experiment on an international stage.

McBride was elected the next CMS spokesperson on Feb. 11, 2022, and will start her term Sept. 1. Her tenure coincides with a pivotal moment for the LHC, which will start its third run of operations this summer. Run III will boost the LHC’s collision rate, but CMS is also currently preparing for the High Luminosity LHC, which will make its debut in 2029 and increase the collision rate by a factor of 5 beyond the LHC’s design luminosity.

“We expect to double our data set during LHC Run III, which will take some time to process and analyze,” McBride said. “At the same time, we have to balance physics and operations with an ambitious upgrade program as we move toward the High Luminosity LHC.”

This recent appointment builds on a distinguished career in physics and a skillset that makes McBride a dependable and equitable leader.

“She has really good technical and scientific judgment,” said Joel Butler, a distinguished scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and the CMS spokesperson between 2016 and 2018. “She knows the terrain and knows what’s important.”

McBride’s interest in particle physics started when her mom, who was a librarian, brought home a library book about cyclotrons. Inspired, McBride built an accelerator facsimile for the eighth-grade science fair. She describes her project as looking like a pinball machine.

“It was terrible,” McBride laughed. “I had no clue.”

McBride received her doctorate at Yale and joined Fermilab as a staff scientist in 1994. One of the most memorable moments from her physics career thus far was the co-discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 by the CMS and ATLAS experiments.

“I was the head of the Fermilab CMS group at the time,” McBride said. “The announcement happened at around 2 a.m. local time, which was 9 a.m. at CERN. The One West conference room at Fermilab was packed, and then we had an afterparty with alcohol-free champagne and cake.”

For McBride, this was also one of her proudest moments.

“I like to see the collective succeed, rather than the personal,” she said. “I like being part of CMS’s success.”

McBride not only became a physicist, but she will now lead one of the largest scientific collaborations in history: the CMS experiment, which collects and studies collision data from the Large Hadron Collider at the international laboratory CERN.

CMS was designed in the 1990s with the primary goal of searching for the Higgs boson. During her more than 15 years working on CMS, McBride has seen the experiment evolve far beyond its original scope.

“We’re in this period of innovation as we go into the next decade,” McBride said. “There’s going to be a lot of data coming from Run III and we need to be creative.”

An emerging goal of CMS is to precisely measure the properties of fundamental particles, such as the Higgs boson, to probe new theoretical ideas and test the Standard Model, which describes how all the fundamental particles fit together. The collaboration also will sift through the collisions to look for new particles, especially particles that could explain the nature of dark matter, which accounts for the vast majority of matter in the universe. CMS’s precision measurements combined with creative searches for new physics will enable experimental and theoretical physicists to hone their models and search for links to cosmological phenomena.

Beyond the science, McBride also recognizes that the heart of CMS is its people. With the pandemic taking its toll on individual and interpersonal wellbeing, McBride wants to encourage her collaborators to find new ways to foster relationships.

“One thing that got me through the pandemic has been mentoring postdocs over Zoom,” McBride said. “For me, it’s been a lifesaver and gives me a lot of energy. Even small things can foster people’s mental health, careers and personal growth.”

Over the next 6 months, McBride will work closely with current CMS spokesperson Luca Malgeri as she prepares for her new role.

“This is an exciting and challenging phase for CMS,” Malgeri said. “Patty is an extremely competent and capable leader. I am very happy to leave CMS’s helm in her hands.”

As McBride embarks on this next stage of her career, she feels an overwhelming sense of gratitude.

“A working particle accelerator is a gift,” she said. “We need to remember to celebrate our successes, both little and big.”

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science has elected Fermilab scientists Robert Bernstein and Chandrashekhara Bhat as 2021 AAAS fellows. A lifetime distinction, an election as an AAAS fellow honors members whose efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications in service to society have distinguished them among their peers and colleagues.

Bernstein was honored “for distinguished contributions to experimental particle physics, particularly to the study of neutrinos and muons, and to the design and construction of experiments to investigate charged lepton flavor violation.”

Bernstein came to Fermilab in 1987 as a Wilson Fellow. A former co-spokesperson of the NuTeV experiment, for which he designed the beam and was subsequently made an American Physical Society fellow, he is now a co-spokesperson of the Mu2e experiment, as well as a co-convener of the Snowmass particle physics community planning exercise. Bernstein was also recently elected as councilor of the APS’ Division of Particles and Fields, a position he holds through 2025.

Two Fermilab scientists were recognized for distinguished contributions to the field of physics: experimental particle physics and accelerator physics, respectively.

Bhat was recognized “for distinguished contributions to the field of accelerator physics, particularly for new methods for manipulating the phase space of particle beams and increasing their intensities at high-energy accelerators.”

Bhat received his doctorate in nuclear physics from Bangalore University, India. Prior to coming to Fermilab, he worked as a scientific officer at the Cyclotron Lab at Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands. He then was an assistant research professor in nuclear physics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Bhat joined Fermilab in 1988 as a research associate in the lab’s Accelerator Division. He has since conducted research on the Antiproton Source, Main Ring, Main Injector, Recycler Ring and Booster. From June 2010 to January 2013, he was a visiting scientist at CERN under the US-CERN LHC Accelerator Research Program. His research in recent years has focused on increasing beam intensity in the Booster toward producing megawatt beam power on neutrino targets.

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.

How long have you been at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and how did you end up here?

I’ve been here for about four and a half years. I was actually referred here by one of my professors in college. He noticed the work that I was doing, as well as my attention to detail, and suggested that I’d be a good fit at Fermilab. I received a letter of recommendation from him, applied for the open position and was hired in October 2017 as a Tech II. I am a very fast learner and have an almost photographic memory, so I picked up the process quickly. After two years in this role, I was promoted to lead of the group.

What do you do for the lab?

I work in the APS-TD, and I’m currently working on US-HL-LHC-AUP. My group is responsible for fabricating the coils that are going into the magnets for the accelerator upgrade at CERN.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I enjoy the fact that we are working on something that is an interesting topic of discussion within the science/physics industry. I also enjoy that we have an important role in something that is talked about all over the world.

What do you consider one of your strengths?

The way that I learn things. If I’m able to watch someone do a task, I can very easily mimic it or carry out the steps that I’ve seen. When I first started working here, I was trained by some of the most skillful techs that I have ever had the opportunity to work with. I learned so much just by watching them perform some of the delicate tasks that we do during coil fabrication. It usually takes about one to two years to fully understand and learn our process   but the way my mind works, I was able to pick it up in a little less than a year.

Do you like having a job that requires you to physically do things?

Yes, I have always had physically demanding jobs, so I am no stranger to getting my hands dirty. I like the fact that the work that I do for Fermilab has both mental and physical aspects and challenges.

What’s it like leading a team?

It is an honour to be able to lead a team. I have had the opportunity to work very closely with each one of the technicians in my group. It is a great feeling to be able to watch them accomplish their goals and strengthen their technical abilities.

What do you look forward to most in your job?

I will say that this is one of the best jobs that I’ve ever had in my life. I actually drive almost an hour to get here every day. I used to work five minutes from my house; I would take this over that any day just because it’s so engaging and there’s always something new to learn here. I feel like I’m coming here to learn, instead of just [doing] the day to day of going to work.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

My wife and kids are my world. Most of my spare time is spent with them. I have a 16-year-old son and a seven-year-old daughter who keep us very busy. I like that the work-life balance here allows me to be a lot more involved in my kids’ extracurricular activities.

What do you usually do with your kids?

My kids are very active in sports. My son plays soccer, and my daughter is playing basketball and doing gymnastics. A lot of our free time is just running them around to their activities. My son has been playing in a competitive travel soccer league for over 10 years, so he’s doing very well for himself there.  We travel everywhere for games. I’m actually getting a little bummed out because my son gets his driver’s licence this month, and a lot of that travel time was our father-and-son time.

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.