STAR Graduates – Where are they now?

 Since RHIC started more than 320 Masters and PhD theses have been awarded to students for the research on STAR. We reached out to ask many as we could to see what they are doing today. Below are their responses.

Jun Takahashi (1998) – University of Sao Paulo

Indeed, I got my PhD in 1998, with the SVT project. And I was there pulling and plugging cables preparing for beam. Certainly, those were very intense days, with lots hard work, but great camaraderie between all of us, working with a single goal.

There are so many great stories from those days, like getting snowed inside the STAR counting house, or going to NY city after a shift at 6 in the morning to get crispy donuts for the next crew, or the first time we saw the 2 particle correlation plot in the STAR meeting. But for me the best was when we saw the first RHIC collision event pictures on that large plasma screen in the STAR control room.

Being part of that was unique and special, and I am sure that having being there on the first day, a historical day, was a privilege and a once in a life time experience.  It certainly brings me some very happy memories, and still today, I keep many lessons that I have learned from my time in STAR, but most importantly, I keep many friends from those days, some still in science, some that have moved on to other successful careers.

I also wish this message finds well all those people from BNL that taught me so much, like David, Bob, Bill, Phil, Cora, Jamie, Tim, Rolf, Tonko,  and you.

A very strong happy 20th anniversary to STAR.

 

Matt Horsley (2002) – Yale University

Here are my thoughts and recollections from my time with the STAR experiment, looking forward to reading what everyone else has been up to! Matt 

Its been well over 20 years since I first set foot in Brookhaven. Looking back, I can see my experiences there had a big impact on my career and my life. I can still remember all the time spent in the experimental hall setting up the electronics, laying cables, developing controls, etc… It’s strange, but after all this time, I have only vague memories of seeing the first collision, most of my vivid memories of the time I spent at STAR were related to the time I spent with friends and colleagues while working there, including all the day and night shifts monitoring the experiment! I can even remember when Senator Hillary Clinton visited, too! She came in the early morning, and I was almost finishing up a night shift. She came in the control room and asked everyone what they were working on. After defending my thesis, I worked at MIT Lincoln Laboratory as a researcher and eventually made my way to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where I am currently working as a researcher in the Space program. I feel my PhD in physics has been a tremendous benefit to my career. Having a solid foundation in physics never stops paying off and I find it helps in almost every problem I come across in my work. In fact, being involved in STAR at an early point in my career gave me an opportunity to experience what it is like to work on a large physics experiment with many other scientists, which helped me develop career skills like communicating with others, developing plans, cooperating and collaborating.          

Alex Cardenas (2002) – Purdue University

 

I’m currently working as the Chief Medical Radiation Physicist for a cancer clinic called Compass Oncology, in Portland, OR. After receiving my Ph.D. from Purdue working at the STAR experiment, I became a post-doc in radiation oncology physics,  and then started a  career in medical physics.  I eventually went back to school to get an MBA and have been in management roles for the past 7 years. Working with STAR gave me a certain toughness of mind when confronting challenging situations and complex organizations. I graduated in 2002 with a thesis based on charged kaons productions.  To this day, I keep in contact with my thesis advisors.

 

 

Boris Hippolyte (2002) – IRES, Strasbourg

 

My PhD studies in STAR started in October 1999 and I defended in July 2002. I’m indebted to many persons of the STAR Collaboration who already 20 years ago trained me, provided guidance and gave me precious advice: the physicists I had the chance to meet within STAR were not only amazing scientists but they became my mentors and soon-to-be friends. The 20th anniversary of the first collisions is for me a good opportunity to thank all of them for such a great scientific and human adventure.

 

Hui Long (2002) – University of California, Los Angeles

 

 

Hey, All former and current STAR collaborators. CONGRATS on the 20th Anniversary and 20 years of productive science experiments.  As a former PhD student from UCLA, I worked on the TPC Response Simulator and the strange particles reconstruction at STAR. Currently, I am a Director at Deutsche Bank in the US with a focus on building quantitative financial models. I think the analytical skills I developed while working at STAR helped  me most in my career.

 

Mike Miller (2003) – Yale University

Wow, this makes me feel happy (and old!).  I'm more than happy to share.  I am now living in the Pacific Northwest.  After my PhD at Yale on Jet Quencying with John, Helen and Thomas (and also Zhangbu, Dave Hardtke, Peter Jacobs, Carl and the rest of the High Pt group), I was a postdoc at MIT and then joined the faculty at University of Washington.  At MIT I started my transition from Heavy Ions into elementary particles and also neutrinos dark matter.  But really, I started a drawn out transition to being a tech founder / entrepreneur that culminated with founding of the company Cloudant, along with MIT STAR grad students Adam Kocloski and Alan Hoffman.  That went very well and ended up taking the three of us out of physics and academia for good.  IBM bought the company in 2014 and it formed the basis of their new cloud computing division.  Since then I have enjoyed the transition to being a venture capital investor and started a new Silicon Valley firm (Liquid 2 Ventures) along with Joe Montana.  It's been a fun, unexpected, fulfilling and somewhat wild ride.  Most importantly, I have had the chance outcome of having not one but two sets of twins (no IVF!) with my wife, Laura Jean.  We are fortunate to have time and freedom to explore the world and spend time with our kids while they are young.  We were planning to start an around the world sailing trip in August 2020, but that's on hold for the next year at least.

I am in regular contact with friends and colleagues that I made at STAR.  I try to visit with Gary Westfall (my undergrad advisor) every time I'm home in Michigan, and my best friends in the world, Adam and Alan, are still close even though we now live in different parts of the country from each other.  There is simply no substitute for the trust and respect you build with the folks that you worked with.  I miss our Yale group dearly, I miss my office at BNL, I miss the old building (long since torn down) where the Yale, Ohio State and Frankfurt groups were based during the first summer of collisions.  That was a very exciting time for me, one that I'll never forget.  I was there for the first collisions at the LHC, too, and that just wasn't the same.  I guess you never forget your first time!  Please share my dearest thanks to everyone in STAR (you included) who made it such a wonderful team.  And, let's be honest, who would actually want to work on PHENIX, right?! :).

I'd love to be included on any festivities (at a distance) for the 20th anniversary of first collisions.

Sincerely, Mike Miller (and Laura, Forrest, Sierra, Coral and Aurora)

Jon Gans (2004) - Yale University

I am a “Group Leader” at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. I run a group of ~25 (about 15 technical, mostly Ph.Ds) developing architectures and algorithms for air, missile and maritime defense. I run the Systems and Architectures group.

 

 

 

 

Gang Wang (2005) – Kent State University

 

I joined the STAR collaboration in 2003 during my Ph.D program at Kent State University. In the same year, I went to the Brookhaven National Lab to construct the ZDC-SMD detector, which was installed in Feb 2004, and has been working perfectly until now (2020). I successfully defended my doctoral thesis in 2005, and became a postdoc in UCLA in 2006. Since my research group in UCLA is still a part of STAR, I maintain a STAR membership up to now.

 

From 2009 to 2012, I served as the co-convenor in the Heavy-flavor physics working group. From 2014 to 2017, I served as the deputy of the physics analysis coordinator.

Now I am an Adjunct Associate Professor and Associate Researcher in UCLA. It is my honor to give six STAR presentations in the past Quark Matter conferences. Over all these years in STAR, I have served all kinds of committees and task forces, and made friends and worked with many colleagues. I have learned so much from them, and I am always happy to pass down the knowledge and wisdom to junior members.

 

Weijiang Dong (2006) – University of California, Los Angeles

I was working on measurement of non-photonic electron v2 from Au-Au collisions for my Ph.D. thesis in 2016. I was under the guidance from professor Huan Huang at UCLA. Back then I wrote programs to analyze experimental data to study the physics behind the experiment. A lot of things were really cutting edge. The time of flight detector had a time resolution in pico-seconds, while not many people even know the word pico. The size of the data was in tera-bytes, while the most of the world had not even heard of the word tera back then. We were processing data in parallel using hundreds of computers, which was probably the prototype of cloud computing 15 years later. The analysis method was extremely rigorous. Each result was being discussed and debated among collaborators from the world. The technology that I had to learn to be able to do research efficiently was amazing. After I got my Ph.D. in physics, I started to work in the finance industry. Although physics and finance look like complete different fields, but I found the skills that I acquired when I was working in STAR collaboration is very valuable. I still write programs analyze large amount of data rigorously. I would like the thank STAR collaboration and my advisor Huan Huang for the opportunity to be part of STAR family! STAR, congratulations on your 20th anniversary!

 

Levente Molnar (2006) - Purdue University

 

After years in physics and working with exceptional colleagues in Italy and France, the 20th celebrations of STAR finds me working in the financial sector. I'm a Senior Quantiative Model Validation Specialist and Teem Leader at MSCI (NYSE:MSCI), where even 5 years after my career change I feel like a kid in the toy store. With my wife and our two daughters we have found our hom in Budapest, Hungary for the their school years.
I am happy if people want to reach out to me: www.linkedin.com/in/molnarlevente

 
Career Path:
1/2016- Present: Senior Quantiative Model Validation Specialist MSCI (HU)
9/2012-12/2015: Researcher, CNRS (FR)
9/2008-8/2012: CERN Associate and Fellow, CERN (CH)
8/2006-8/2012: Post Doctoral Fellow, Researchr Wigner RCP (HU)
9/2006-9/2008: INFN Post Doctoral Fellow, INFN (IT)

 

Sevil Salur (2006) - Yale University

 

I have been a member of the STAR experiment since the first RHIC heavy collisions were delivered in 2000, and I was fortunate to be in the counting house at that time as an incoming graduate student to feel the excitement of my collaborators at that achievement.  Throughout the years I have never forgotten that moment.  I later received my Ph.D. from Yale University for investigating strange hadronic resonances including Sigma(1385) in pp and heavy ion collisions and for exploring the existence of pentaquarks in these collisions.  For my initial postdoctoral work, I worked on reconstructing jets in heavy ion collisions by utilizing STAR's TPC and EMCAL.  Since 2011, I have been a faculty member in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.  My group at Rutgers has focused on investigating QGP properties at RHIC and LHC by looking at jet shapes, jet asymmetry, and bottom-quark-tagged jets. I feel fortunate to have been doing research at RHIC for 20 years now and to have a chance to work with the outstanding people who make this research facility successful.

 

Yifei Zhang (2007) - University of Science and Technology

 

I joined STAR in 2004 as a graduate student in USTC and went to LBNL and BNL as a visiting scholar since 2005. Dr. Nu Xu and Dr. Zhangbu Xu guided me in HI physics field and provided me advice of great value and inspiration of new ideas. I learned a lot from Xin Dong, Lijuan, Hans Georg Ritter and many people who I really appreciate. I have been working on heavy flavor and dilepton related physics analysis for many years. I was also participating in HFT simulations and physics analysis in the past years. I spent an unforgettable time in STAR. The knowledge, skills and dealing with things gained during the experience in STAR are of benefit to my career. Now I am a staff at USTC and will keep the spirit of courage as STAR people to contribute myself to pursuit the physics dreamed. Professor, University of Science and Technology of China

 

Betty Abelev (2007) - Yale University

I now am at Invitae, a Clinical genetics company. We don’t have titles,  but its something like Process Improvement Data Science lead. I am model risk, and also manage information we distribute about the detail inner workings of the company. Hope this helps.

 

Raghunath Sahoo (2007) – Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar

 

Presently, I am working as an Associate Professor of Physics at the Indian Institute of Technology Indore, India. Receiving a PhD in high-energy physics has been of immense help in developing a career in Physics, staying in academia and training the next generation through teaching and research. This has helped in working at the frontiers of energy and intensity in world’s leading laboratories like BNL, GSI and CERN.

 

Working in STAR experiment was my first exposure to detector technology and knowing the sociology of large-scale collaborations, a few from many. The format of the data analysis in Physics working groups, taking everybody’s suggestions, learning from each other and working in diversity has contributed to confidence building. STAR was my first love in all aspects- taking a flight alone to New York JFK, managing flight delays, staying alone in BNL sometimes, working together for detector installations, cooking with friends in Fleming House and Cavendish House has given a different life altogether. Be it the Thanksgiving or New Year, the first snow fall in life - everything was enjoyable.

  

Christine Nattrass (2009) – Yale University

I am currently an associate professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville on the ALICE experiment.  While in STAR, I was able to get some leadership positions as a student.  I really developed my presentation skills.  I had numerous fun and productive scientific debates.  Since leaving STAR, I've realized how fortunate I was to have an open and lively scientific culture in my scientific formative years.  I also have greatly come to appreciate an environment where constructive criticism is welcomed, all people's contributions are appreciated and generally recognized, and management generally strives for equity and to respond to harassment.  This is not the case in all other collaborations.

 

Feng Zhao (2009) - Yale University

 

It is a great honor for me to receive my PHD by participating the STAR experiment. The STAR is an amazing and very productive experiment. I still clearly remember how exciting I was the first time I saw the STAR detector system in 2009. During my five years in the STAR experiment, I attended working group meetings, the STAR analysis and collaboration meetings, and had opportunities to present my analysis results and discuss QGP related issues with top scientists all over the world. I left academia after I graduated, and I brought the analysis and presentation skills as well as the working attitude to my current work. The experience in the STAR experiment benefits me a lot for my work in financial industry.

Congratulations on STAR 20th anniversary! I am proud that I was a member of STAR. Wishing STAR great success in future!

 

Xinghua Shi (2009) - Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics

 

The STAR experiment definitely helps me to understand the theory. I always appreciate the STAR experimental experience during taking shifts in BNL. The scientific training from STAR makes me professional and innovative on my current interdisciplinary research at the University of Oklahoma.

 

 

  

Stephen Baumgart (2009) – Yale University

 

I am now working as a Systems Engineer Physicist at Varian Medical Systems in Palo Alto, CA. I am using the physics and analysis techniques learned at STAR on much smaller accelerators, this time to create the radiation beams to treat cancer patients. I am happy that I am using what I have learned at STAR to help save lives by improving the efficiency of cancer treatment.

 

 

 

 

Zebo Tang (2009) - University of Science and Technology

 

I have been working with STAR since 2004 when I was a graduate student at University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). I received PhD degree in 2009 via a joint program between USTC and Brookhaven National Laboratory and now I am a faculty in the STAR-USTC group. I did MRPC module production for the STAR Time-of-Flight (TOF), TOF calibration and software, works related to MTD and eTOF and data analysis on many topics. I learned a lot in the collaboration and I very much like the atmosphere in the collaboration. Associate Professor, University of Science and Technology of China

 

 

Lokesh Kumar (2009) - Panjab University

I started my journey with STAR as a Ph.D. student from Panjab University, Chandigarh, India. I had a chance meeting with many STAR colleagues in Quark Matter 2008 conference at Jaipur and was really interested to visit the STAR site at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Later on, I got this chance and was even lucky to be part of the team to collect the then lowest ever energy collisions data at STAR, i.e., Au+Au 9.2 GeV. We were able to work on this analysis and published the paper which gave a boost to start the STAR Beam Energy Scan Program. Along with this I was able to work on two more topics during my Ph.D., the measurements of photons using the Photon Multplicity Detector (PMD), and transverse momentum fluctuations and correlations. Overall my Ph.D. period at STAR was very joyful and I learned a lot. I met with many people and good scientists interacting with whom improved my knowledge and Physics understanding. My journey continued at STAR after Ph.D. and I started post doctoral position at Kent State University, USA (2010-2013) during which time I was stationed at Brookhaven National Laboratory. This was a dream come true. Now I had a chance to interact with STAR scientists more closely. During this time we were working on the Beam Energy Scan program starting with data taking and doing Physics analysis. This was again a very enjoyable and satisfying period. In STAR I served as a convener of one of the Physics working groups (2011-16) and also as a member of STAR talk committee (2011-13). In addition, I got a chance to give many plenary and parallel talks on behalf of STAR. All these experiences helped me improving my leadership quality, working as a team member, and presentation skills. It was the hard work done at STAR that I was able to get a permanent position first as a scientist at National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) (2013-14) and now as a faculty at Panjab University Chandigarh India (2014-present). My journey with STAR is still ongoing....

Yichun Xu (2009) - University of Science and Technology

 

I'm working on the computational simulation of nuclear materials proposed for the accelerator-driven sub-critical nuclear power system. The experience with STAR collaboration not only gives me the chance for learning the basic physics, but also provides many benefits to me, such as the scientific thought (finding a question and solving it), fundamental tool (C, C++, root etc), writing paper...... Thanks again to all the people helped me when I was working on my Ph. D thesis and Best wishes to STAR for future. Associate research fellow, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

 

 

Shusu Shi (2010) – IOPP, Wuhan

 

I am currently in Central China Normal University (Full Professor)

Prof. Shusu Shi was awarded Ph. D. in physics by the Central China Normal University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2010 and then went to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (2013-2015) as a postdoctoral fellow. He was appointed as a full professor at the Central China Normal University in 2016. He focuses on the RHIC-STAR experimental study of relativistic heavy ion collisions and achieved the following key results in recent years: it is proven that the partonic degree of freedom and charm quark collectivity have been reached in the top energy heavy ion collisions at RHIC by measurements of elliptic flow of multi-strange hadrons and neutral D mesons; results of elliptic flow from RHIC Beam Energy Scan program phase I suggest the partonic phase would not be achieved when the collision energy is lower than 20 GeV. He served as the STAR council on the behalf of students and postdocs during 2009-2011 and on behalf of Central China Normal University since 2015. He was physics working group convener of the STAR collaboration during 2011-2014.

 

Xiaofeng Luo (2011) - University of Science and Technology

 

 

 

I am Xiaofeng Luo, born in Feb. 28, 1983 and got Ph.D in 2011 from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). Now associate professor of physics at Central China Normal University. From 2009 to 2020, I have been a STAR member and doing my research in STAR Collaboration for 11 years. In the past 11 years, my work is mainly focus on the experimental measurements of the higher order cumulants of conserved charges distributions in relativistic heavy-ion collisions and its application to search for the QCD critical point. I have very good experience of working in STAR collaboration by taking different roles: shift crew, detector operators and shift leader, period coordinator, pwg co-convenor, BUR writing, give STAR talks. Those experiences in STAR make me gone through the training of team spirit and taking responsibility as a member of the collaborative team, which are the basis and essential of many important physics discoveries. They are precious for me and have deeply affected on every aspect of my work/life. As a supervisor, I will lead my team (Ph.D student/postdocs) to continuously make efforts on the contributing to STAR collaboration and work on exploring the phase structure of strongly interacting matter at high baryon density. Finally, I am proud of being a member of STAR collaboration and wish STAR shining to the world in the next 20 years.

 

Ermes Braidot (2011) – University of Utrecht

 

I took my PhD from Utrecht University (Netherlands) on the topic of "forward physics". I had the chance to visit Brookhaven for long periods during my PhD years and to collaborate with Leslie Bland and the FMS team.

My experience with the STAR Collaboration and, in particular, with Les' team has been extremely valuable.  I had the chance to work on one of the hottest topics in Physics and, as a young PhD student, the privilege to present the team's results and to represent the collaboration on international venues.   A very stimulating and friendly environment, STAR allowed me to grow professional and personal relationships that continue beyond my time in Brookhaven and in Physics.

After my experience at STAR, and a postdoc at CERN, I moved into the finance world where I've been working as a quantitative-trader for the last 8 years.

 

Michal Zerola (2011) – Czech Technical University

I received a PhD in Computer Science in 2011 as a student from Czech Technical University which has had a collaboration with STAR experiment at RHIC for several years. This gave me the opportunity during my studies to work with my thesis advisor at Brookhaven National Laboratory, meet other colleagues and students from abroad, and learn how to present and publish the results of the research in front of often diverse audience at international conferences. Although there were not many pure computer science based theses in STAR I was always met with understanding, help and care from everyone around me in the collaboration aligned with a guidance towards the results. I am grateful for this extremely valuable experience since the problems treated in the field of science mapped well to what industry was looking for. It allowed me to find an interesting and stable job at Deutsche Boerse, a world leading marketplace organizer, where I work as IT expert. My advice to any student considering studies and thesis at RHIC would be definitely: Yes, it is worth it!

 

Bingchu Huang (2011) - University of Science and Technology

 

Working in STAR collaboration is one of the most extraordinary experiences I ever had. It taught me the way of doing research, also inspired me to explore the new frontiers of science. I also learnt how to collaborate with many smart people. I am always thankful to the STAR collaboration, which is not only important for science, but also for many researchers. I wish STAR collaboration have more and more breakthrough discoveries in future. Data Scientist, Lonk. Inc Title

 

 

 

Hao Qiu (2011) – Institute of Modern Physics, Lanzhou

 

I am at Institute of Modern Physics, Lanzhou. This is also the institute where I got Ph.D. with STAR. 

 

 

STAR, especially Zhangbu, Aihong and Gene who supervised me during my Ph.D. period, basically trained me to become a scientist. I learnt physics. I learnt experimental techniques. I learnt the strategies to deal with problems. But beyond that I learned not to give up. After many years one thing I remember most during the time I was at BNL, is working till mid-night with Aihong when debugging the High Level Trigger and trying to find J/psi invariant mass peaks. I was frustrated after a couple of days as HLT will be useless if it doesn't work before the beam time ends. But Aihong stayed calm and checked possible issues with me one by one, and finally we made it. Now I am leading a small group and begin to train students myself. I am still (at least half time) working on STAR. I am amazed that this experiment can still yield lots of scientific results after 20 years. And I am sure a lot of new students will still benefit from this collaboration, just like me many years ago.

 

Wenqin Xu (2012) – University of California, Los Angeles

 

Working with the STAR collaboration has been without a doubt one of the greatest experience for me. Actually, it was everything I could have hoped for as a graduate student. The Physics was incredibly rich and the collaborators were very super friendly and helpful. The STAR collaboration has an amazing ability to attract talented young researchers from all over the world, challenge them with fascinating Physics problems, and enlighten them through extraordinary mentorship. In the end, great scientific discoveries are the best rewards. I cannot say enough to thank the STAR collaboration and all the mentors I have luckily encountered, particularly my own advisors at UCLA, to whom I owe endless gratitude. The STAR years is a dream come true for me and it laid a solid foundation for my career. As an Assistant Professor at the University of South Dakota and a member of multiple Neutrino collaborations, I try to mentor the younger generation of researchers the way I was mentored by STAR, treating them with respects and nurturing them with care. I very much look forward to working with both former and current STAR collaborators on the frontier of Nuclear Science in the near future.

Xuan Li (2012) – Shandong University

 

I’m a scientist in the nuclear physics field at Los Alamos National Laboratory. I was a STAR collaborator from 2009 to 2015. During this period, I learnt a lot on data analysis, simulation setup and detector hardware techniques from many STAR members of different institutions including my PhD co-mentors and my first postdoc mentor. These skills still benefit me to invest new research projects and explore new physics topics. I’m very grateful to my STAR friends who help me from then until now. It’s great to see nice physics results are keeping achieved by the STAR experiment. I’m glad that I was one of the STAR collaborators. Happy 20 year’s birthday, STAR!

 

Hongwei Ke (2013) – Central China Normal University

 

I joined STAR experiment in 2010 as a third year PhD student from CCNU. In the same year, I was stationed in BNL until I finished my thesis work. My supervisors believe it is the best for students to stay close to the experiment and gain first-hand experience. My personal interests are not limited to physics but also include high performance computing. In STAR, I find the perfect combination, the STAR High-Level Trigger. It uses high performance computers to identify events of interests on the fly during the data taking. To build such a system, one need good understanding and skills on both the physics and computing side. I started to work on the STAR HLT since the beginning my participant of the STAR experiment and it also became part of my PhD thesis. After graduate, I am employed by BNL and continue to develop and operate the STAR HLT, which plays a vital role during the ongoing BES-II program. The STAR experiment has opened the door to precious opportunities to enhance my knowledge and skills and given me the chance to work with talented colleagues from over the world. I feel very lucky and grateful to be part of STAR.

 

Daniel McDonald (2013) – Rice University

Liz! It's been forever!!  Glad to hear from you, hope you are still keeping everyone in line.

I got my PhD back in 2013. During my time at STAR I worked on TOF, was a member of the UEC, did the congressional lobbying trips, was convenor of a PWG, and was a speaker at QM.

 

My career took a pivot after my postdoc towards financial services. I have gone from being a business/data analyst to where I am now: Head of Retail Mortgage Strategy at Citizens Bank.  Even though it may seem like a far cry from my physics days, the skills translated well. My time at STAR allowed me to sharpen my critical thinking, analytical skills, and professional maturity.  I wouldn't be where I am now, an executive at a top 10 mortgage bank in the US if not for the valuable experiences I had during my time in physics.

More than happy to chat more if you or anyone else wants to reach out!

 

Mustafa Mustafa (2013) – Purdue University

 

Reflecting back on my six years experience at the STAR Collaboration puts into perspective where I am now and the choices I make about how to conduct science. Up until I joined STAR, I have only known physics and the scientific method as a distant receiver of anecdotes and distilled knowledge carried by books. STAR thrusted me into the whirlwind of modern scientific experiments. Without enumerating the many facets of that experience, I can say that, thanks to STAR, I got to learn how to be both a generalist and a specialist. The skills I got to develop are now helping me work on diverse topics, from cosmology & astrophysics to turbulence in fluid dynamics, with the same rigor that we applied to all aspects of experimental setup and data analysis. Due to the insights I gained at STAR about the challenges of accounting for the emergent properties of many-body systems such as QGP, I now focus my research on developing  surrogate and data-driven computational models of complex and chaotic systems. Finally, it is hard to overstate the value of the guidance and support of the world-class scientists I worked with at STAR, I can say for sure that STAR, as individuals and as a team, will forever be with me and a part of my work. With endless gratitude, thank you!

 

Mustafa Mustafa (mmustafa@lbl.gov)

Machine Learning Engineer and Research Scientist at NERSC, Berkeley Lab

Career path:

2013 - 2016: Nuclear Science Division Postdoctoral Fellow, Berkeley Lab (STAR Collaboration)

2016 - 2018: Computational Excellence Postdoctoral Fellow, NERSC, Berkeley Lab

2018: Research Scientist, Qulab Inc

2018 - Current: NERSC staff

 

Xiangli Cui (2013) - University of Science and Technology

 

Now I am a medical physicist, mainly working on photon and proton radiotherapy in Hefei institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The research about proton and heavy ion is very help for present job. Thank you very much to my advisor and all the staff at Brookhaven national laboratory.

 

 

 

 

Dronika Solanki (2014) - University of Rajasthan

I had an opportunity to join STAR collaboration in November 2009, which opened the door for ample amount of  learning, and ultimately led to completion of my PhD in October 2014 from University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India. I studied - "Multiplicity and Pesudorapidity distributions of photons at forward rapidity in STAR at BES energies." I have so many good memories attached to this wonderful journey. Going back in memory lane, I remember that how warmly Jerome welcomed me by saying - "Namaste Dronika". Hearing this greeting in my native language gave me long lasting faith that STAR is just my second home. Intellectual discussions with Dr. Paul Sorenson while working on one paper were very fruitful and I learned a lot in his mentor ship. I also had a lot of fun with other graduate students during my night shifts in STAR control room. After completing of my PhD, in order to take my scientific and programming skills to next level, I joined Masters in Computer Science program in Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island and proudly graduated in Summer 2017. Presently I am working as Senior System Designer at Partners Healthcare in Boston, MA. I want to thanks all collaborators in STAR for this amazing and full-filling experience. 

 

Wangmei Zha (2014) - University of Science and Technology

I joined the STAR Collaboration since 2012 and had been stationed at BNL for two years to participate in MTD upgrade and to finish my PhD. Thesis supervised by Lijuan and Zhangbu. That was the best experience of my life. Great benefit from the research experience of STAR and strong support from the collaboration, I am now working at USTC as an associate professor. Long live for the STAR Collaboration.

 

 

 

Kolja Kauder (2014) – University of Illinois at Chicago

I started Physics at UIC in January 2008, where I first heard of Heavy Ion collisions and couldn't fathom whys somebody would do such a silly thing. In the Summer of 2008 I learned why during a project with Olga Evdokimov (then Barannikova) who subsequently hired me. My first collaboration meeting culminated in my rehearsal for the Quark Matter 2009 talk I gave a week later. Trial by fire...

2015-2018: Post-doc at Wayne State with Joern Putschke where I learned about jet reconstruction and became jetcorr convener, and ultimately wrote JETSCAPE with him.

2018-present: Post-doc with Thomas Ullrich, where I'm transitioning to EIC while still being an active STAR member.

 

Chi Yang (2014) – University of Science and Technology

 

I am Chi Yang who is now working at Shandong University in China. I joint STAR from 2008. Studying and working in STAR collaboration really helped me in my science career and kept me in this field. I was well trained in both physics analysis and hardware works. I am now working on STAR Forward sTGC Tracker upgrade. Really appreciate to STAR collaboration!!! Happy 20^th anniversary to STAR!!! The first phot shows me

in 2011 at STAR. Commissioning MTD.

 

Supriya Das (2015) – Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata

I joined Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata, India as a PhD student in 2000 to work on the development and fabrication of the Photon Multiplicity Detector (PMD), the only photon detector at forward rapidities at the STAR experiment. I visited BNL a few times during the tenure of my PhD and my responsibilities there included to develop the first version of the slow control for the detector, oversee the installation of the support structure and install the detector modules other than the general duties during the data taking shifts. I must confess to day that working in this collaboration, specially onsite at BNL, has taught me a good deal of professionalism and helped me in a significant way to develop myself as whatever I am today. I used to sit in an office designated for the Indian collaborators in building 902B that also housed offices of other collaborating institutes such as Purdue, Rice, Yale etc. I will never forget that afternoon sitting in my office after finishing lunch when I heard the noise of the cart in the corridor outside the office. The sight of Ralph (Ralph Brown, the then Head, STAR Operations) pushing the cart carrying a half electronic rack housing a CAMAC crate fitted with a Lecroy Power supply in it, which I wanted to have in my office to start working on the slow control, was a surprise to me. And he was not the only one, I had Jamie Dunlop, a postdoctoral research fellow at Yale working with RICH during those days, coming to my office and teaching me the ABCs of control. I would like to take this opportunity to reveal that I appeared for my first driving test in my life by showing my skills in operating a man lift in front of Ralph. Later on when I was a crew at the STAR control room, a mixture of all age group scientists starting from probably the most senior Blair Stringfellow, a quiet person always at the TPC console, to bubbling young Manuel Calderon de la Barca Sanchez, with a pony tail who used to take breaks during the ‘No Beam’ periods in the night shifts to roam outside with his camera, made the experience a loving one. The reminiscence of my Brookhaven days will remain incomplete if I do not talk about the help and encouragement I received from Bill Christie. An instance just flashed in my mind when the entire night shift crew at the STAR control room got replaced at around noon next day when Tim Hall man, the then spokesperson of STAR, arrived at the control room with his new 4x4 SUV after an overnight snowstorm that almost buried the entire BNL under few feet of snow. Along with the work on photon measurements I also carried out an analysis to study the strangeness fluctuation in relativistic heavy-ion collisions and working in a large collaboration of that time taught me to compete and cooperate at the same time to extract the best scientific output.

 

David Garand (2015) – Purdue University

 

Seeing an email from you was a pleasant surprise, and made me feel like a member of STAR all over again. I hope you have been well!

 I am currently a Solution Scientist at Sydor Technologies, located in Fairport New York. Sydor provides high speed optical and x-ray imaging instruments for our customers, many of whom are at Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) facilities, synchrotrons, and/or linear accelerators. I serve as a technical liaison between our customers and our sales/engineering teams, and I help develop customizations of our products to create a complete solution for our customers’ needs. After my PhD at STAR, I joined the BEam COoler and LAser spectroscopy (BECOLA) group at the National Super Conducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) as a research associate. There I assisted with collinear laser spectroscopy experiments, and oversaw the selection and installation of a pulsed laser system to introduce optical pumping to the facility. My time at STAR helped me form a foundation in high energy nuclear physics that has enabled me to rapidly discuss our customer experiment requirements, and to help assess science goals and next steps. Though I miss working with ROOT, my coding experience with STAR has been of great value for several projects in my recent positions.

I am more than happy for my Sydor email to be circulated so people can reach out.

David.Garand@sydortechnologies.com.

  

Michael Lomnitz (2016) - Kent State University 

I worked with Spyros Margetis and Xin Dong on the D0 analysis with the HFT. I moved in to a postdoc with Spenser Klein on EIC physics and am now a data scientist for a non-for-profit called IQT. IQT started about 20 years as a strategic venture firm that identifies new tech, invests and helps bring it back to the USG intelligence community. I work in one of their own research labs looking at AI applications slightly beyond what startups are doing, Trying to bring situational awareness and develop tech that isn’t commercially viable just yet.

  

Shuai Yang (2016) - University of Science and Technology

 

My STAR journey was started by Prof. Zebo Tang in 2011 with cosmic ray analysis and the mass production of MRPC modules for MTD at USTC. I moved to BNL and had been deeply involved with MTD program since 2012. This seven-year STAR experience at BNL means a lot to me. Cooperation and communication, playing a critical role in my career, are highly improved when I carried out MTD installation and muon related trigger commission. For my PhD thesis, I did dilepton and MTD related data analysis under the supervision of Dr. Lijuan Ruan, Dr. Zhangbu Xu and Prof. Cheng Li. I am impressed by their enthusiasm, focus on the research and inspired by their numerous ideas. After receiving PhD, I continued to work on the STAR experiment as a BNL postdoc. I interacted with more and more excellent scientists from STAR to move forward and the atmosphere of STAR made my research be wonderful. Though I moved to the CMS experiment in 2019, the cooperation, enthusiasm, concentration, and independent thinking, which I learned in STAR collaboration, are playing a crucial role in my current research and my future career. I am so proud of being a STAR member and witnessed STAR delivered tremendous crucial results in relativistic heavy-ion and cold QCD fields for last seven years. I wish STAR keeps being productive and successful in BESII and forward upgrade programs as she did for the last twenty years. Postdoc, Rice University

Jinlong Zhang (2016) - Shandong University

I joined STAR in 2012 from Prof. Qinghua Xu’s group in Shandong University and got my PhD on STAR W measurements in 2016. I spent more than half of my graduate time at BNL. Afterwards, I continued as STAR member by working with Ernst at LBNL until 2017. I enjoyed and learned so much from my experience in STAR collaboration. There are so many precious memories of STAR and STAR people. Now, I am postdoc at Stony Brook University and work on JLab and EIC physics. 

Congratulations for the 20th anniversary and best wishes to STAR!

Kun Jiang (2016) - University of Science and Technology

I got my PhD degree by working on the STAR experiment. STAR collaboration is a place where every individual is encouraged to express their ideas and concerns. My involvement with the STAR experiment greatly enriches my research experience and expands my horizon. I also have great memories working with members of the collaboration. I feel grateful for all of these. Postdoc, University of Science and Technology of China

 

 

Ting Lin (2017) – Indiana University

 

I have been affiliated with STAR collaboration since 2014 at Indiana University. After getting my Ph.D, I continue to work with STAR as a post-doc at Texas A&M University. People in STAR are friendly and pleasant to work with.

 

Gunnan Xie (2017) - University of Science and Technology

I have been involved in the STAR Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT) detector commissioning, calibration as well as physics analyses. I also conducted comprehensive Monte Carlo studies to demonstrate the performance of the novel HFT detector. It was an great opportunity to be a member of STAR and such international Collaboration will tremendous enlarge the vision. 

Xiaozhi Bai (2017) – Central China Normal University

 

My Name is Xiaozhi Bai, and working as a postdoc at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH in Germany, in ALICE collaboration at LHC experiment. I obtained my Ph.D. degree from STAR collaboration in Central China Normal University (CCNU) in June of 2017. I joined the STAR as an exchanged Ph.D. student on behalf of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) since July of 2013, Zhenyu Ye is my thesis supervisor and he introduced me into the fields of the high energy experiment via the STAR data. My thesis is on the measurements of the open heavy flavor production at RHIC energy, while the current program are the quarkonium measurements at LHC energy. The experience from STAR helped me make a very smooth transition from Ph.D. to the current project. Particularly I learned how to communicate with people and work more efficiently at a collaboration, which will not only benefit my current research project, but also my future career.   

 

Long Ma (2017) – Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics

 

Thank you for reaching out to me and I’m happy to share my experiences with STAR. I got PhD in 2017 and now I’m postdoc at Fudan university working on neutrino physics (still part-time work for STAR).  I should say that the research training I got from STAR during my PhD study is precious and will benefit my life forever. At the historic moment of the 20th anniversary, I’m so proud to be part of the STAR family. 

 

There’re too many impressive things. I really miss the time I was there in BNL, in building 510 with all the talented people. I still remember the first time I saw the giant guy - the STAR detector, the big toy of physicists, in the experimental hall.  I still remember the assembling of the fancy new detector - HFT which contains years of people’s hard work. Besides, I still remember the end-of-run BBQ,  the Junior Day reception(collaboration meeting) and the food there in the Berkner Hall (was ever quite good).  

In a few words, I should say “STAR lights up my life”.

 

 

Joey Butterworth (2017) – Rice University

Currently, I am a member of a modeling, simulation, and analysis team that focuses on radio frequency emission. I use my experiences from STAR on a daily basis. May it be using ROOT, computing clusters, Monte Carlo techniques, various programming languages, collaborating tools, and the like. (Last month I was asked about GEANT.)  But the biggest assets I have taken from STAR are the interpersonal skills necessary to succeed in a team setting. Everyone at STAR was friendly, helpful, and patient with me, at all levels in the collaboration. This is something I try to apply in every interaction.   Thank you for all the memories. Cheers!

 

Qian Yang (2017) - University of Science and Technology

 

It is the happiest time when I was a graduate student at USTC. The training I got from USTC started my reaching at STAR and it teach me much more than knowledge itself. I have received enormous help from STAR-USTC members no matter on my reaching or life. Their hard working, self-motivation as well as concentration on physics encouraged me for a higher standard on physics reaching. As a scientist, be patient and always do your best, sometime you never know what will be next coming to you.

 

 

Long Zhou (2017) - University of Science and Technology

 

I am Long Zhou from USTC. I received my PhD in particle physics and atomic nuclear physics in 2017. After graduation, I joined a medical device research and development company and worked in nuclear medicine imaging physics and artificial intelligence related work. The experience at STAR is very memorable, the new collaboration mode, the open environment, the harmonious research atmosphere are all unforgettable. Thedata science skills, statistical thinking, and rigorous research style that I learned in the STAR experiment have influenced my current work and strongly contributed to my success at work. During the years I have been away from STAR, I have often dreamed of returning to STAR, hoping that one day I can return to a familiar place and explore the mysteries of physics with my familiar friends. Data Scientist, MinFound Medical Inc

 

 

Yefei Xu (2017) – Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics

 

It’s so glad to hear that the STAR collaboration is approaching its 20th anniversary.

As an engineer in Minfound Inc., which is one of the main medical equipment manufacturers in China, I indeed benefited from my experience in STAR collaboration.

I’m deeply impressed by the experience of mass data analysis at STAR: the way of gathering, processing data and drawing correct conclusions... It is now still part of my job to analyze experiment data, and I’ll never forget the lessons I learned at STAR.

 

Congratulations for STAR for its 20th anniversary!

 

Zhen Liu (2018) - University of Science and Technology

 

I do learn enormously from this experience. I learned a great deal from my supervisors, colleagues, and friends. They work hard and excel in their work, which motivates me never stop progressing and always have high standards for the career I am involving. I also always missing the hot pot on Saturday night and the rich and varied forms of activities. Postdoc, University of Science and Technology of China

 

 

 

 

Zaochen Ye (2018) – University of Illinois at Chicago

 

I am a postdoctoral research associate at Rice University, and still working on the STAR experiment.  Receiving a PhD is one of the most important milestone for my academic career.  Working with STAR collaboration gave me an excellent opportunity to work with many talented people and work on the very interesting physics topics. I am very proud of being one of the STAR members. 

Maowu Nie (2018) – Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics

I’m a postdoc in Shandong University and I am still a STAR member.

Working on RHIC-STAR physics has been my entryway into the world of science. This is where I learned how the scientific method actually works.  I am fortunate that I can still in the field of high-energy nuclear physics to strengthen and broaden my expertise.

 

Shenghui Zhang (2018) - University of Science and Technology

I’m Shenghui Zhang from USTC. I received my PhD in particle physics and atomic nuclear physics in 2018. After graduation, I became a postdoc in USTC and UIC, and am still working on analysis of STAR. During the STAR, I harvest a lot, such as interesting physics, knowledge of various detectors, programming ability. I believe these will be of great help to my future work.

 

Xiaolong Chen (2019) - University of Science and Technology

 

 

I do learn enormously from this experience. I learned a great deal from my supervisors, colleagues, and friends. They work hard and excel in their work, which motivates me never stop progressing and always have high standards for the career I am involving. I also always missing the hot pot on Saturday night and the rich and varied forms of activities.

 

 

 

 

 

Alex Jentsch (2019) – The University of Texas at Austin

 I started working on STAR in May of 2012 -- just after finishing undergrad -- as a post-bac building detectors for the MTD. After completing that project, I started graduate school in 2014 at The University of Texas at Austin working on heavy-flavor correlations with STAR. During that time I made some life-long friends while taking shifts and attending conferences. I have personally found the atmosphere working on STAR to be warm and collegial, and am one of those people who never minded doing shifts (I mean – it’s kind of awesome to be sitting in the next room while STAR is taking snapshots of heavy-ion collisions and polarized proton collisions). Since graduating in May of 2019, I have begun working at BNL on the EIC, and on spin physics in STAR. Changing fields from heavy-ion has allowed me to see how versatile STAR and RHIC really are, and has made me very excited for the future!

 

 

This article was put together by Liz Mogavero. Thanks Liz!

I am most likely one of the few people who have been with the STAR Collaboration from the onset. In fact, I was with the MPS (Multi-Particle Spectrometer) group at BNL who submitted a LOI when they were making decisions on experiments for RHIC.

BNL and LBL both submitted LOI’s for a TPC type detector, the DOE said that they would approve one TPC type detector. So BNL and LBNL were informed that they should form a collaboration. In the beginning it was back and forth as to who would be the Spokesperson, at the time there were two senior people who refused to budge and the decision was neither. John Harris became our first spokesperson with all the institutions in favor.

Once approved construction of the detector began. Those were very exciting days. The first major steps were the magnet and the TPC. The magnet came from France as there were no steel factories in the US that could manufacture rings that size. The TPC was built at LBL, and needed to be transported across the country Bill Edwards our chief engineer took care of those details. The TPC arrived at Gabreski Airport in Westhampton, LI on a military C5 cargo plane. This was an awesome event and many members of our team went to the airport to attend the arrival and watch the unloading of the TPC. For those who might be curious go to this link you can scroll through the photos and see the delivery of the TPC.

https://www.star.bnl.gov/public/imagelib/star_photos/public_html/

The construction effort required many people from scientists, engineers, technicians, and administrators. Nothing of this size gets built quickly or without lots of effort. The construction began in 1993 and took 7 years before the first event. If you were a graduate student back then you would have waited quite some time for your data.

Although many years have gone by and STAR is nearing its completion it has been exciting, sometime stressful in the early days, and annoying at times. Especially when people would bail out of their shift duties and either Tim or I would be knocking on doors in the corridor. My answer many times was turn of the switch to off. But our local colleagues always pulled through.

I have had a very long career at BNL, I was hired just when Sam Ting discovered the J particle at the AGS (now CAD). There were many experiments running at the AGS at that time to prove he did in fact discover the particle. Looking back now I was fortunate to have the experience to see an experiment be successful from the beginning. I was able to mold a career with the STAR experiment. I hope that some of you will have the same experience with the new Electron-Ion-Collider.

These will be wonderful times for you all in the future.