I just returned from the other side of the country! The international nEXO collaboration had its biannual conference at Stanford University from July 11-14, and seven members from my lab (four grad students, a postdoc, Professor David Moore, and I) represented Yale at the meeting! From tenure-track professors to research lab scientists, from postdocs to PhD candidates, the collaboration brought together nearly a hundred particle physicists, nuclear scientists, detector engineers, and several others during a magical weather in the Bay Area.
As one of the youngest meeting attendees, I learned an incredible ton about the grand theme of my research! Every talk I attended impressed on me the challenges of detecting an extremely rare nuclear process that might turn out to be purely hypothetical, of building a detector 2 kilometers underground, of filling it with tonnes of liquid xenon and, of course, of shielding it from omnipresent background sources. At the same time, I couldn’t help but appreciate the indispensability of every hand in nEXO. No single person dealt with all the challenges of the project. While some worked on simulating the decay using advanced software, others studied novel approaches to reducing detection uncertainty, and yet others (like me!) dealt with the pesky sources of background contaminating the xenon.
I am very grateful to my PI for giving me a part in this grand project, for my fully-funded Stanford trip and for being a constant source of inspiration in intellect and character. To the countless amazing minds I met, talked with, and listened to, your words and your works remain in my heart (and my notes!) forever!
Here is a group photo we took (not all members are in)
A picture during my lab tours (oh those fancy optics uniforms!)
A good ol’ selfie next to a Stanford banner (I promise this is no betrayal of Yale)!
Selfies with the Yale nEXO team
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Moore Lab Group Hangout ‘22