School of Physics Faculty Search Colloquium Series- Dr. Lauren Yates

Speaker: Dr. Lauren Yates

Abstract: Among the fundamental constituents of the Standard Model of particle physics, neutrinos have proved particularly enigmatic and challenging to study because they interact only weakly with ordinary matter. Liquid argon detectors have emerged as a leading technology for current and next-generation experiments aiming to make precision measurements of neutrino properties. This colloquium will focus on the procession of liquid argon neutrino detectors at Fermilab, culminating in the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) that will be the centerpiece of Fermilab’s neutrino physics program for many years to come. I will discuss in depth the latest liquid argon neutrino detector to come online, the Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND), which started data-taking in 2024. SBND is poised to address fundamental questions about the number of neutrino species and the nature of their interactions.

Bio: Lauren Yates is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Neutrino Division at Fermilab, where she works on experimental neutrino physics as a member of the Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND) collaboration. Her postdoctoral efforts have focused on commissioning the SBND detector and guiding its initial neutrino data-taking. Dr. Yates earned her undergraduate degree in physics from Rice University and went on to complete her PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where her graduate research centered on the search for anomalous electron-flavor neutrino appearance in a muon neutrino beam, using the MicroBooNE experiment. She is interested in advancing experimental techniques that utilize precise detector technologies and innovative analysis methods to explore the fundamental properties of neutrinos.