Suyog Shrestha
Suyog is an assistant professor at Washington College and research scientist on the ATLAS experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. He was part of the Nobel-prize winning discovery of the long-sought Higgs Boson in 2012. The discovery has completed the Standard Model of Particle Physics, which describes the basic building blocks of matter and how they interact with each other. But at the same time, the discovery also leaves many questions unanswered, and Suyog's current research focuses on attempting to answer them. In addition to research, Suyog enjoys teaching and mentoring students, forging interdisciplinary and international scientific partnerships, and increasing public awareness of the importance of basic science.
Education
- Ph.D, Particle Physics at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, Iowa State University, 2014.
- BA, Physics, Grinnell College, 2006.
Academic Expertise
- Particle Physics
Research in particle physics is not just about studying particles, but also about the study of space and time; matter and energy; symmetry and conservation laws. It involves exploration of topics such as antimatter, dark matter, Higgs boson, quarks, leptons, neutrinos, extra dimensions, quantum black holes, supersymmetry, etc.
Additional Information
- Assistant Professor of Physics, Washington College 2022 - Present
- Adjunct Assistant Professor of Physics, Ohio State University 2022 - Present
- Postdoctoral Researcher, CERN & The Ohio State University 2014 - 2021
- Research Assistant, CERN & Iowa State University 2011 - 2014
- Search for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production in the 2b + 2ℓ + MET
final state in pp collisions at sqrt {s} = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Journal of High Energy Physics. 2024; 02:037. - Search for Higgs boson pair production in the dileptonic WWbb channel in p-p collisions at sqrt{s} = 13 TeV. Physics Letter B. 2020; 801:135145.
- Search for Higgs boson pair production in the bbWW final state at sqrt{s} = 13
TeV with the ATLAS detector. Journal of High Energy Physics. 2019; 04:092. - Configuration and performance of the ATLAS b-jet triggers in Run 2.
European Physical Journal C. 2021; 81:1087. - Measurement of the material of the ATLAS Inner Detector using Run-2 datafrom the LHC. Journal of Instrumentation. 2017; 12:12009.
- National Science Foundation US-ATLAS EDI Award (10K USD, 2024)
- National Science Foundation US-ATLAS Education Grant (30K USD, 2018-2023)
- Grinnell College Alumni Award 2023
- International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) Outreach Grant, Italy (20K Euros) 2014-2023
- Physics Mentor Award, Ohio State University (2021}
- PHY211 (Modern Physics) and PHY323 (Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics)
- PHY252 (Scientific Modeling and Data Analysis) and PHY324 (Electricity and Magnetism)
- PHY101 and PHY321 (Classical Mechanics)
I have immensely enjoyed working with students. In a big collaboration such as ATLAS, there are several self-contained and well-defined projects to which students can make significant contributions. Below is a list of students I have supervised and their subsequent or current positions.
- Ms. Rano Marufova, REU 2023 (Washington College)
- Mr. Tapas Kumar, REU 2022 and 2023 (Washington College)
- Ms. Sneha Dixit, REU 2021 and AY 2022-23 Toll Fellowship (Washington College)
- Mr. Jason Ikenaga, AY 2022-23 Toll Fellowship (Washington College)
- Ms. Eniya Jaber, REU 2022 (Washington College) (Graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis)
- Mr. Peyton Stewart, REU 2020 (Washington College) (PhD student at Clemson University)
The discovery of the Higgs boson was a triumph of the Standard Model (SM) of Particle Physics. However, the SM cannot be the final theory of nature because many observed phenomena, such as dark matter, are not explained by the SM. New theories have been proposed to address the shortcomings of the SM, but no evidence for them has been found yet. In this context, the Higgs boson provides a unique opportunity to test the SM, to see when and if it breaks down, and to probe new laws of physics.
The Higgs boson is the only elementary particle that can establish if nature allows particles to interact with themselves. This is one of the most fundamental interactions that elementary particles can have. How does the Higgs boson interact with itself? And is this the only Higgs boson? Both of these most profound questions in physics can be answered by searching for events with pair-produced Higgs boson. In order to achieve this, I have pioneered techniques to analyse proton-proton collision data at the LHC. In the coming years, we will either find an enhancement of the rate of Higgs pair production compared to SM prediction, which will be a tell-tale sign of new laws of physics, or else we will set the world's most stringent constraints on what the new laws of physics should be.