Professor of Experimental Neutrino Physics at Columbia University

I am an experimental particle physicist focusing on the use of modern neutrino detectors as a portal to search for and probe potential new physics beyond the Standard Model, in the so called "Dark Sector", where dark matter and new fundamental forces may live. My interests lie both in using current neutrino experiments, such as MicroBooNE and SBND, to study some of the exciting anomalous results and hints of new physics we have observed in the neutrino sector and also in the development of next generation pixelated readout Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) neutrino detectors to enable a deeper understanding of this exciting field.

Prior to this I was an Oppenheimer Fellow at Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico

Sitting atop the MicroBooNE Cryostat, repairing the 70,000V high-voltage feedthrough needed for operation

Recent Interests

  • MicroBooNE Single-Photon Search

    I led the MicroBooNE flagship search for anomalous single-photons, focusing on the extremely rare neutral current Δ radiative decay. We placed the world’s leading bound on this process, you can read all about it here: PRL.128.111801 as well as press releases from Columbia University and Fermilab

  • Exotic Neutrino Phenomenology

    There has been a surge of interest in phenomenological models to explain some of the anomalies we have observed in the neutrino sector, by moving away from traditional “electron” appearance, You can read about our model here: PhysRevD.99.071701 as well as a overview of the field in our white paper here: Arxiv:2203.07323

  • Neutral π Production

    It turns out neutral pions are one of the primary background for almost all “Beyond-the-Standard-Model” exotic physics searches that we are looking at. So we aimed to measure the cross-section of production in order to constrain this important background! You can read all about it in our recent paper here : Arxiv:2205.07943

  • Weird Science Halloween Bash!

    Come explore the Magnificent Marvels of Magnets with Mark, at the Santa Fe Children’s Museum fundraiser. where I have two custom demonstrations on the wonders of electromagnets and how we generate electricity!

  • What have we learnt in last 10 years?

    A talk I gave at the 2022 Snowmass Community workshop in Seattle, about what we have learnt about the short-baseline neutrino anomalies over the past decade! Full talk can be found HERE

  • A 4th Neutrino?!

    Could it be, a 4th neutrino? I join host Kirsty Duffy in spoof debate show “Particle/Anti-Particle” to debate the idea in OutReach YouTube channel “Even Bananas”, created by Fermilab Comunications Office. You can find the video here: YouTube

  • How well do we know the 3x3 PMNS matrix?

    It turns out, if you drop the concept of “unitarity” we have measured very little about neutrinos! Especially in the mysterious tau-sector. I am currently very interested in exploring new ways to investigate this tau-sector, especially in next generation neutrino experiments. Check out more at PhysRevD.93.113009 or past talks at NuFact 2016 (below)

  • What's in a Statistic?

    I’m the lead developer of SBNfit, a fitting and statistics framework used by MicroBooNE and SBN program. All our flagship Low-Energy excess results were based off the Feldman-Cousins implementation in SBNfit. Currenly working on expanding SBNfit onto HPC and GPU acceleration

Select Talks and Presentations

  • APS Global Physics Summit - Mar 2025, Anaheim, Invited Speaker in Highlights in Neutrino Physics, “Beyond 3 Neutrino Oscillations”, Link to Slides

  • Fermilab Wine and Cheese Seminar - Feb 2025, “First Search for Dark Sector e⁺e⁻ Explanations of the MiniBooNE Anomaly at MicroBooNE“, Link to Slides

  • CSU HEPPA Seminar Series - Nov 2024, Colorado State University, “The Sterile Neutrino is Dead, Long Live the Sterile Neutrino!” , Link to Slides

  • 23rd International Workshop on Next Generation Nucleon Decay and Neutrino Detectors (NNN24) - Oct 2024, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, “Short-Baseline Anomalies and Sterile Neutrinos”, Link to slides

  • Neutrino Oscillation Workshop (NOW 2024) - Sept 2024, Otranto, Italy, “Probes of New physics at MicroBooNE“, Link to slides

  • Fermilab Neutrino University Lecture Series - Aug 2024, “Neutrinos: Your friendly portal to physics beyond the standard model!”, Link to slides

  • International Neutrino Summer School Topical Colloqiua, - Università di Bologna, Italy, June 2024, “Short-Baseline Neutrino Anomalies” Link to slides

  • Columbia University HEP Seminar -January 2024, “Ghosts, Anomalies and Portals to the Dark Sector”

  • 21st Conference on Flavor Physics and CP Violation - May 2023, Lyon, France. “Results and perspectives from short baseline neutrino experiment” Link to slides

  • Mitchell Institure Seminar Series - Texas A&M - “The Sterile Neutrino is Dead! Long Live the Sterile Neutrino” Link to slides

  • NuFact ‘22 - Aug 4th 2022, Snowbird, Utah. “The Fermilab Short-Baseline Experiments” Link to slides

  • Snowmass Community Workshop - July 21st 2022, Seattle, “Experimental Status: Atmospheric/Accelerator DIF and DAR” Link to slides

  • BSM@Nu Snowmass - Feb 11th 2022, PittPacc, “MicroBooNE’s Low Energy Excess Search: First Results and Future Prospects”, Link to slides

  • Los Almos National Lab P/T colloquium, Nov 4th 2021, “First electron and photon results from MicroBooNE in the search for the origin of the MiniBooNE anomaly ”, Link to Slides

  • HIDDeNs ITN Seminar - Oct 19th 2021, Webinar, “Search for anomalous single-photon production in MicroBooNE as a first test of the MiniBooNE low-energy excess” Link to Slides

  • Fermilab Wine and Cheese Seminar - Oct 1st 2021, “Search for anomalous single-photon production in MicroBooNE as a first test of the MiniBooNE low-energy excess “, Link to Slides

  • XIX International Workshop on Neutrino Telescopes - Feb 23rd 2021, Virtual Rome, “MicroBooNE's Search for a Photon-Like Low Energy Excess”, Link to Slides

  • ICHEP 2020 - Jul 28th 2020, Virtual Prague, “Neutral Current Pi0 Rate Measurement with the MicroBooNE Detector”, Link to slides

  • NuFact ‘19 - Aug 30th 2019, Daegu, South Korea, “Status of the MicroBooNE Low-energy Excess Search”, Link to slides

  • PONDD - Dec 5th 2018, Fermilab, “New U(1)’ Interactions and the MiniBooNE Low Energy Excess” , Link to Slides

  • NuTheories - Nov 6th 2018, Pitt Pacc, “New U(1)’ Interactions and the MiniBooNE Low Energy Excess” Link to slides

  • NuHoRIzons18 - 2018, HRI, Allahabad, India, “Phenomenology of Short Baseline Neutrino experiments”

  • NuFact ‘16 - Aug 26th 2016, ICISE Quy Nhon, Vietnam, “Non-Unitarity in the 3x3 PMNS Matrix“, Link to Slides

  • Nu@Fermilab - Jul 22nd 2015, Fermilab, “Non-Unitarity in the 3x3 lepton mixing matrix” , Link to Slides

  • Invisibles15 - Jun 24th 2015, “Heavy sterile phenomenology and the MiniBooNE low energy excess” Link to Slides

  • The International Conference on Massive Neutrinos - 2015, Singapore, “Non-Unitarity in the Neutrino Sector”

  • Neutrino Oscillations Workshop - Sep 13th 2014, Puglia, Italy, “What do we really know about the PMNS Matrix?”, Link to Slides

  • Invisibles14 - Jul 15th 2013, Paris, “Heavy neutrino decays at short baseline experiments”, Link to Slides