Principal Investigator: Ryan D. Martin
Research and education interests
Our research is focused on experimental particle astrophysics; namely, we work on experiments that help us to shed light on the smallest constituents of the Universe (particles) while allowing us to also understand the largest objects in the Universe (astrophysics). For example, the Nobel-prize winning SNO experiment simultaneously tested models of how the Sun shines while also probing the detailed properties of neutrinos produced deep inside the Sun. We work closely with other experimental physicists in the particle astrophysics group at Queen's University, as well as with theorists in the department, and more generally, the international community of scientists that is brought together by the McDonald Institute, SNOLAB, and particle astrophysics.
Members of the group are involved in several experiments (Majorana Demonstrator, LEGEND, SNO+, NEWS-G, MINER) that are either studying the detailed properties of neutrinos, searching for the existence of dark matter, or both. Our group has particular technical expertise in:
- Software development
- Data analysis, including the use of machine learning tools (e.g. Deep neural nets, MCMC, etc.).
- Hardware development of point contact germanium detectors.
Our group is always looking for strong and motivated graduate students to join our research program. Please contact R. Martin if you are interested in research opportunities; a list of possible projects is given on the available student projects page. For more information about our research and current projects that students are working on, see our research pages.
Our group is also interested in the development of open access educational resources, and physics education research. We have developed open source software to support undergraduate laboratories (Qexpy), an open source in-class response system (Qlicker), as well as several open access textbooks.