CV

 

Current Position since Dec. 2004

Chair, distinguished professor, directir of JARA-FAME
III. Physikalisches Institut B
RWTH Aachen University

Research Interests:

• Einstein Telescope
  Multimessenger triggers with deep learning
  Position sensors and actuators for mirror control
  New vacuum technologies
• Neutrino Physics: mass hierarchy and CP-violation with DoubleChooz, T2K and JUNO.
• CP-Violation: search for electric dipole moments of protons and light ions with an electrostatic storage ring. A future project at FZ Jülich with the COSY storage ring.
• CMS-Experiment:
  Data-analysis with tau leptons
  R&D for phase-2 upgrade
• Medical Physics: radiation therapy, GEANT4 simulations, measurements of nuclear cross sections, treatment planning for movable tumors.

I am the chair and director of the institute with approximately 70 scientists, engineers and administrators. I am coordinating the national activities on the Einstein-Telescope. I am involved in neutrino projects JUNO and Double Chooz working both on hardware (trigger electronics) and data analysis. I am a member of the executive board of JUNO and speaker of the DFG research unit FOR 2319 “Bestimmung der Massenhierarchie mit dem JUNO-Experiment”.
In recent years a close collaboration between RWTH Aachen University and the nearby HGF research center FZ Jülich developed under the name JARA (Jülich Aachen Research Alliance). I am founding member and current director of the JARA section FAME focusing on CP-violation and the matter–antimatter asymmetry in the universe.

Hardware experience:
Development of an integrated PMT readout (“intelligent PMT”). Development, construction, and operation of the trigger and timing system of the DoubleChooz experiment. Construction of a CMS tracker endcap. Time-of-flight spectrometer and calorimeter for measurement of nuclear cross sections for medical physics.

DESY Feb. 2001 - Nov. 2004

Leading scientist
Head of TESLA research group @ DESY-Zeuthen

Research Interests:

TESLA-project (later ILC), data-analysis and detector R&D, accelerator physics

• Instrumentation of the very-forward region, beam-strahlung and beam monitoring, luminosity measurement, beam backgrounds.
• Development of a source of polarized positrons, test experiment E166 @ SLAC.
• Physics case and technical challenges of a gamma-gamma collider within the TESLA project.

Hardware experience:
Transmission polarimeter for E166. Diamond sensors for the TESLA beam calorimeter.

University of Bonn Oct. 1992 - Jan. 2001

Postdoc and research assistant
with Prof. Norbert Wermes, OPAL experiment.
Scientific associate at CERN from Nov. 1999 to Oct. 2000

Research Interests:

• Major contributions to the data analysis in tau physics. Supervision of 20 thesis from which 11 OPAL papers arose, i.e. the measurements of the strange and non-strange spectral functions and \(\alpha_S\), the limit on the mass of the \(\nu_\tau\), searches for CP-violation in the \(\tau\)-production, or the first test of CPT from the mass of \(\tau^+\) and \(\tau^-\).
• Introduction of the likelihood method for particle identification in OPAL tau physics and many other areas in OPAL.
• Transfer of the \(\tau\)-identification tools from LEP-1 to the SUSY searches at LEP-2 while scientific associate at CERN.
• Major update of the Monte Carlo simulation of the preshower endcap detector (PE)

Venia Legendi
Habilitation with a book on “\(\tau\)-lepton physics” submitted in 1998 and published as a separate volume in Springer Tracts in Modern Physics. Awarded the title “Privatdozent” in July 1999.

Hardware experience:
R&D on BaF crystals for a \(\tau\)-charm factory detector.

SLAC Mar. 1996 - Feb. 1998

Feodor-Lynen fellow of the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation
Postdoc with Group E in BaBar (Prof. Rafe Schindler and Prof. Marin Perl)
On leave of absence from University of Bonn.

Research Interests:

• Coordination of the mechanical construction and integration of the barrel of the BaBar CsI(Tl) calorimeter. The calorimeter was built during these two years by a team of two engineers, ten technicians, some students and me.
• In parallel some work on \(\tau \)-lepton physics (CP-violation) with SLD.

Hardware experience:
CsI(Tl) crystals, large scale detector construction. Mechanics, electronics, cooling.

University of Heidelberg – PhD Mar. 1989 - Feb. 1993

Graduate student
Supervisor: Prof. Klaus Tittel, ALEPH experiment
Research stays at CERN for trigger operation: Jul. 1989 – Dec. 1999 and Apr. – Jul. 1991

Research Interests:

• Analysis of the decay \(\tau\rightarrow\mu\nu\nu\). Measurement of the \(\tau\) polarization, branching ratio, Michel parameters and a search for lepton number violating \(Z \rightarrow\tau\mu\) events.
• Installation and operation of the ALEPH level-1 trigger. Development of a concept of redundant triggers for all major Z-decay channels and first determinations of the trigger thresholds and efficiencies.

PhD:
Title of the thesis “Installation, optimization and analysis of the ALEPH event trigger and investigation of muonic decays of tau leptons”, accepted in Feb. 1993 with distinction.

Hardware experience:
Trigger systems, discrete electronics.

University of Tübingen – Diploma Oct. 1982 - Oct. 1988

Studies of Physics
Diploma in Physics with the optimal mark 1.0

Diploma thesis in atomic physics with Prof. Werner Nagel:
“Measurement of the momentum distribution of K-shell electrons in silver"