Presentations and Publications

Presenting at the DNP 2017 meeting in Pittsburgh, PA.

In this section, I provide a listing of my presentations and publications, where I made a significant contribution. My roles as Deputy Spokesperson and before that as Co-convener of the STAR Spin Physics Working Group have afforded me opportunities for a variety of invited presentations, i.e. those where the conference organizers extend me a direct invitation to speak on a particular subject. In other cases, I simply submit an abstract for consideration by the organizers. Consequently I separate my presentations below as “invited” or “contributed.” I also list presentations by students I have mentored. The practice encoded in the STAR bylaws and publication policy is for all collaborators in good standing to be listed alphabetically on all STAR publications. Consequently I am officially co-author on every paper published by the STAR collaboration. My contributions to most of these papers are minimal, e.g. serving as shift leader during a portion of the data-taking. I will not provide a listing of these papers, below; but I will provide a link to my full publication list as reference for those who are interested. I explicitly list those papers to which I have made a direct contribution during my time on the tenure track. For full disclosure, I briefly describe the particular contributions.

Invited Presentations

International Spin Symposium
This is the major international conference series focusing specifically on spin physics. It is a biennial conference and regularly held abroad, as well as in the U.S. In 2018, I was invited to serve as a co-convener for the parallel session, “3D Structure of the Nucleon: TMDs.”

International Workshop on Deep Inelastic Scattering and Related Topics
This is one of the major international conferences for discussing the latest results in spin physics measurements. It is a very large annual workshop and regularly held abroad, as well as in the U.S. The conference typically publishes proceedings of the workshop.

Workshop on Novel Probes of Nucleon Structure in SIDIS, e+e–, and pp
This is an international workshop held every 1-2 years, typically alternating between locations in the US and locations abroad. The workshop targets experts in theory and experiment and is truly more “workshop” than “conference,” i.e. presentations are targeted at details and specifics such as how to resolve apparent discrepancies between experimental measurements or theoretical models, preliminary results that might illuminate new areas of investigation, and specific requests for future studies.

Fall Meeting of the APS Division of Nuclear Physics
The American Physical Society is organized into “divisions” of more specific physics topics. The division under which our research falls is the Division of Nuclear Physics (DNP). Each year, the DNP holds a fall meeting as its major annual conference for presenting the latest results in the field. It is a large conference, international in scope but always held in the U.S. Every four years, it is tradition for the DNP and its Japanese counterpart host this meeting jointly in Hawaii.

RHIC/AGS Users’ Group Open Forum Meeting and Reception
This is a meeting held annually at the Fall Meeting of the APS Division of Nuclear Physics (DNP). As such, the meeting is international in scope but always held in the U.S. The meeting usually invites 1-2 presenters to speak on topics of relevance to users of RHIC facilities. There is then an opportunity for questions and an open forum for short, 5 minute presentations by RHIC users.

Joint Meeting of the Texas Sections of APS, AAPT, and Zone 13 of the SPS
This is the annual spring meeting of the Texas Section of the APS. This spring meeting is a joint meeting with the AAPT and the regional zone of Society of Physics Students. Consequently, it is truly a regional meeting, typically hosted by a university in Texas. The scope of the meeting is quite general in terms of physics topics, often involving international collaborations, with speakers typically hailing from U.S. institutions. With the involvement of AAPT and SPS, this meeting also focuses on students.

Contributed Presentations

International Nuclear Physics Conference
This is the largest conference in the world for fundamental nuclear physics. It is affiliated with the Institute of Physics and is overseen by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. It has a general scope within the discipline of nuclear physics and is typically held in locations abroad. The conference typically publishes proceedings.

Conference on the Intersections of Particle and Nuclear Physics
This is a conference designed to explore areas of interest to scientists working in elementary particle physics, nuclear physics, nuclear and particle astrophysics, and cosmology. It is a triennial conference, international in scope, but typically held in the U.S.

Fall Meeting of the APS Division of Nuclear Physics

Student Presentations

Lily McIntosh
Lily is an ACU undergraduate engineering major, who works with Donald Isenhower and me on the STAR forward upgrade. She designed the procedure to machine the scintillator tiles at ACU. Lily plans to present the ACU construction effort on behalf of the STAR collaboration in the regular conference parallel sessions at the 2020 DNP meeting in New Orleans, LA (conducted on-line due to COVID-19). She has also presented status reports of her work in the undergraduate poster session at the 2019 DNP meeting and at the 2019 Physics Congress in Providence, RI.

Madison Meador
Madison is an ACU undergraduate physics major, who has worked on our STAR forward upgrade crew. In particular, she developed the scheme for coating two of the tile edges with reflective paint. As part of this effort, she worked with Dr. Michael Daugherity to assemble an experiment to validate the procedure. Madison plans to present her work in the undergraduate poster session at the 2020 DNP meeting in New Orleans, LA (conducted on-line due to COVID-19).

  • Poster at DNP 2020 in New Orleans, LA (conducted on-line due to COVID-19)
Roy Salinas
Roy was an ACU undergraduate physics major (class of 2020), who completed a McNair thesis with me. Roy investigated novel ways to implement a data correction procedure using machine learning and neural networks. He presented his work as a talk in the regular conference parallel sessions at the 2019 DNP meeting and as a poster at the 2019 Physics Congress in Providence, RI.

Beth Jennings
Beth is an ACU undergraduate physics and math major, who has worked on several of our research crews, including the STAR forward upgrade and analyzing STAR data. She is continuing the work Roy began with data analysis and plans to present her work in the undergraduate poster session at the 2020 DNP meeting in New Orleans, LA (conducted on-line due to COVID-19).

  • Poster at DNP 2020 in New Orleans, LA (conducted on-line due to COVID-19)
Matthew Myers
Matthew is an ACU undergraduate physics major, who worked on our STAR forward upgrade crew and also analyzing STAR data. He is studying simulated STAR data to estimate the efficiency with which STAR can track charged particles produced during the energetic proton-proton collisions. This will be an important piece of information for several STAR data analyses. Matthew plans to present his work in the undergraduate poster session at the 2020 DNP meeting in New Orleans, LA (conducted on-line due to COVID-19).

  • Poster at DNP 2020 in New Orleans, LA (conducted on-line due to COVID-19)
Suzanne Wheeler
Suzanne was a Lamar University undergraduate physics major and my very first McNair scholar. She performed a series of comparisons between STAR data and simulated data to evaluate potential data corrections. She presented her work in the undergraduate poster session of the 2017 DNP meeting.

Publications to Which I Made a Direct Contribution

Link to Full Publication Listing

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