Professional scientist with an obsession for python and triathlon.

I currently work on the LHCb experiment at CERN. The universe is full of matter and surprisingly little antimatter. Why this is so is one of the main questions the scientists of the LHCb experiment hope to answer.

I have been a CERN research fellow since October 2012. Before coming to CERN I was a particle physics graduate student with The University of Manchester. My research focused on properties of top quarks using the vast data set from the D0 detector at Fermilab's Tevatron near Chicago. I defended my thesis in December 2012.

My favourite programming language is Python. Look at the source code of some of the software I have written:

  • David is a library which simulates the interaction of charged particles with matter.
  • Fes is a no frills logbook geared towards triathlon training which runs inside IPython.

I live near Geneva, Switzerland. Previously I have lived in Manchester, England and Chicago, USA. I grew up near Frankfurt, Germany.

My favourite sport by far is triathlon: swim, bike and then run. With no breaks inbetween. In 2012 I competed in a 5km lake swim at Utterly Buttermere and completed my first half Ironman distance triathlon in just over five hours. Other events I have taken part in include the Chicago triathlon, the Big Shoulders lake swim, lots of sprint distance triathlons, several 10km and 5km distance running races.

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Science

These are my top five publications in peer reviewed journals.

  • Measurement of Leptonic Asymmetries and Top Quark Polarization in ttbar Production, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. arXiv:1207.0364

I performed the whole analysis: writing the code to select events, compare simulation to data and perform the statistical analysis. Wrote the final paper and shepherded the paper through internal collaboration review.

I wrote the code to select events, compare simulation to data and perform the statistical analysis, edited the paper and shepherded the paper through internal collaboration and journal review.

I prepared the data and Monte Carlo samples, planned analysis strategies and lead discussions with theorists. Created the final figures used in the paper.

I took part in planning and discussions in our four person team on extending our previous analysis to this new final state, lead interactions with theorists. I created the final figures used in the paper.

  • A measurement of the WZ and ZZ production cross sections using leptonic final states in 8.6 fb^-1 of ppbar collisions, arXiv:1201.5652

This analysis uses a multivariate classifier to identify electrons which I proposed and implemented, with efficiency gains of ~10% per electron over previous algorithms. These are the most precise WZ and ZZ cross section measurements at sqrt(s)=1.96TeV to date.

changed May 1