Lab Partnering Service Discovery

Jayakar “Charles” Tobin Thangaraj is currently the Science and Technology Manager and the Deputy Director at the Illinois Accelerator Research Center (IARC). He works at the frontiers of accelerator science where bold ideas enable discoveries that transform our fundamental understanding of the universe. He is passionate about partnership between science, technology and startups to enable entrepreneurship and innovation to solve 21st century challenges in environment, medicine and society. He received both his M.S. and PhD from the University of Maryland. Charles joined Fermilab as a People’s Fellow in 2009.

Areas of expertise: Artificial Intelligence for Accelerators; Machine Learning for Accelerators

Nhan Tran is a Wilson Fellow at Fermilab working on the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the Large Hadron Collider and is also developing new dark sector experimental initiatives. He is generally interested in deploying machine learning as a powerful tool across fundamental physics. His recent research focus is on the intersection of machine learning with real-time systems and embedded electronics as well as heterogeneous computing to improve experimental efficiency and sensitivity. He received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 2011 and was a postdoctoral researcher at Fermilab prior to joining in his current position.

Areas of expertise: ML Algorithms for Data Reconstruction and Pattern Recognition; Real-Time Low-Latency ML in Resource-Constrained Environments; Heterogeneous Computing

Dr. Slavica Grdanovska is an Associate Scientist at Fermilab working on proof-of-concept studies to enable applications in radiation processing that require high power beam accelerators. Dr. Grdanovska earned both her MS and PhD in nuclear engineering from the University of Maryland. Her graduate work focused on development, testing and characterization of novel sensors capable of measuring deformation of nuclear materials during nuclear reactor operations. Having completed her education and training in a radiation-related discipline, Slavica has gained experience in a wide range of research topics related to accelerated radiation assisted testing and characterization of novel material systems for various applications, radiation chemistry in extreme environments, radiation dosimetry, nuclear reactor instrumentation, and radiation polymer science. Her work has been published in the Journal of Nuclear Materials, International Journal of Radiation Biology, Radiation Physics and Chemistry and the IAEA.

Dr. Sujit Bidhar graduated with his PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Tokyo in 2012 specializing in fatigue, fracture mechanics, and finite element modelling in aluminium die cast. He is currently working at Fermilab where he is involved in new target material research and development, developing material models for future high energy beam target materials subjected to thermal shock, and nuclear irradiation damage to predict target lifetime. Dr. Bidhar has set up a lab-scale electrospinning unit and successfully fabricated different ceramic, metallic, and polymeric nanofibers; he is currently designing micromechanical experiments to evaluate single nanofiber mechanical properties using SEM, FIB, and AFM techniques. In the past, he has worked at the University of Tokyo as a researcher in the field of impact analysis on jet engine turbine blade made up of FRP composites, large scale finite element simulation on super computers using LS-DYNA. He has research interest and experience in computational mechanics, solid mechanics, structural analysis, fatigue and fracture, stress analysis, very large scale finite element simulations, image Based Finite Element Method using ANSYS,VOXELCON,LS-DYNA,ABAQUS, FrontISTR,HYPERMESH, MATLAB, Fatigue testing, X-ray CT. He also has experience in conducting experiments at high temperature and pressure environment, various metallurgical laboratory works, SEM micrographs, EDX, RAMAN spectroscopy, Slow strain rate tests.

Dr. Charlie Cooper has been at Fermilab for more 15 years and received his doctorate at the University of Cincinnati in 2003, focusing on the synthesis, characterization, and use of novel materials and systems for chemical separations. He also received an MBA from the University of Chicago in 2015. He has 10 years of experience in the manufacturing of superconducting radio frequency accelerators for high energy physics experiments. The past 5 years he has spent engaged in application and technology development of electron beam accelerator technology for commercial application. He has expertise in use of electron beams for environmental remediation including a workshop hosted on the topic. He has published papers in the Journal of Membrane Science, IEEE transactions on applied superconductivity, Superconductor Science and Technology, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Physical Review Accelerators and Beams, Journal of the Electrochemical Society and a patent on accelerator technology. He served on the board of directors of the Chicago Council of Science and Technology and is currently on the executive committee of the accelerator applications division of the American Nuclear Society.

Dr. Ram Dhuley is a Staff Engineer at Fermilab. He specializes in mechanical design, analysis, construction, and testing of low temperature systems that support High Energy Physics experiments and Particle Accelerators. He graduated with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Florida State University and is an undergraduate alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. He has more than 20 publications on topics related to low temperature engineering.

Gabriel Perdue is a Scientist in Fermilab’s Quantum Institute, where he works on quantum computing for simulation and machine learning, and more generally on machine learning in physics. He also has a long history at Fermilab in neutrino physics and spent the last decade working on the MINERvA experiment and on the GENIE MC event generator.

Areas of expertise: AI Algorithms for Data Analysis and Systems Control

Farah Fahim is the Deputy Head of the Quantum Science Program at Fermilab. She is a Senior Engineer specializing in Mixed Signal ASIC design. She develops low-noise, high-speed, reconfigurable pixel detectors which operate in harsh environments for a variety of applications including High Energy Physics and Photon Science. Fahim has a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Northwestern University. She joined Fermilab in 2009 prior to which she was an Engineer at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK. She holds four patents and several record of inventions. She received the best presentation award at IEEE NSS in 2016.

Brian Nord works at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, and astrophysics. Primarily, he uses big data sets from astronomy and AI techniques to learn about dark energy, dark matter and the very early universe. In particular, Brian uses deep neural networks to classify and measure large numbers of astronomical objects and remove noise from cosmic images. He applies generative modeling, like GANs, to produce fast simulations of the cosmos. He is also using deep reinforcement learning for the development of a self-driving telescope for automated astronomical observation and discovery.

On the other hand, Brian also uses big astronomical data sets to address key challenges with deep learning --- such as the interpretability of neural networks, integration of neural networks with statistics and integration of AI algorithms with physical models. In particular, he is developing techniques in Bayesian statistics to improve uncertainty quantification in deep learning models.

Brian is an Associate Scientist at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, and Senior Member of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics. He is also the founder and Principal Investigator for the Deep Skies Lab (deepskieslab.ai), an international community of researchers who work in the space of artificial intelligence and astrophysics.

Areas of expertise: Artificial Intelligence; Cosmology; Astrophysics; Simulations; Deep Learning; Statistical Modeling

Michael Geelhoed has worked at Fermi National Laboratory since 2006. He’s served in varying capacities and is currently Technical Support Leader at the lab’s Illinois Accelerator Research Center (IARC). His professional credits include being the lead project designer for temporary radioactive water filtration systems, coordinating the efforts of multiple in-house departments as well as contractors for various projects, and being responsible for the operations of IARC’s A2D2. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from Michigan State University and since earned his certificate of health physics as well as master’s in health physics from Illinois Institute of Technology. As a board member of the Midwest Chapter of the Health Physics Society he also has been published in Super Conductor Science and Technology, IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, and Cryogenics.

Dr. Thomas Kroc is an Applications physicist for Technology Development with the Illinois Accelerator Research Center (IARC). This position draws on his accumulated experience in fundamental high-energy physics research, nuclear power, medical physics, and accelerator physics. Since 2016 he has been Fermilab’s lead investigator in understanding the application of electron and x-ray beams for medical device sterilization. He was the primary author of IARC’s report on medical device sterilization to the NNSA, was a subject-matter expert with a DHS Non-Isotopic Alternative Technologies Working Group, and is now a member of a National Academies committee on Radioactive Sources: Applications and Alternative Technologies. As a member of, and finally head of, Fermilab’s Neutron Therapy Facility, he lead its successful 510(k) submission for its Neutron Therapy System, developed a new multi-leaf collimator, and adapted, installed, and commissioned a GE 8800 CT scanner to enable it to scan upright patients, in addition to clinical medical physics duties. Dr. Kroc managed the magnetic systems and designed the radiation shielding for the 5 MeV DC accelerator and its high current electron beam as part of Fermilab’s successful demonstration and subsequent operation of relativistic electron cooling. As an undergrad, Dr. Kroc studied physics and nuclear engineering including nuclear safeguards as an undergraduate researcher at Argonne National Laboratory. Dr. Kroc holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He earned his undergraduate degree in Engineering Physics from The Ohio State University.