I am a physicist at Argonne National Laboratory.  I study atomic nuclei and nuclear reactions with our very own particle accelerator, called ATLAS (see www​.anl​.gov/​atlas), which is a national user facility sponsored by the US Department of Energy.  I find the atomic nucleus fascinating because it shows drastically different characteristics depending on the number of protons and neutrons contained in it.  I also like to study  nuclear reactions because they can help us understand how some of the chemical elements in the universe were produced (in stars!).

I’m also the ATLAS user liaison.  A few of my top tasks as user liaison include: establish the schedule of experiments at ATLAS, collect data for our user statistics reports, assist users with non-standard experimental work, etc.

I grew up in Monterrey, Mexico, and studied physics at the local state university.  Then, I went to graduate school at Florida State University.  After that I did postdoctoral at Argonne that was sponsored by Louisiana State University.  I was hired as scientific staff at Argonne National Laboratory in 2017.

Research interest

• Study how nuclear structure evolves as we progress toward more neutron-rich/deficient nuclei
• Using radioactive beams in order to explore otherwise inaccessible aspects of nuclear structure
• Measuring key reaction rates for nuclear astrophysics and other applications
• Accelerate data analysis and beam tuning operations via application of machine-learning methods

Employment

• Physicist, since Nov/2022, Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory
• Assistant Physicist, Aug/2017 to Oct/2022, Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory
• Research Associate (supervisor: Catherine Deibel), Jan/2014-Aug/2017, Louisiana State University

Education

• Ph.D. in Physics (Advisor: Ingo Wiedenhoever), Nov/2013, Florida State University, Florida, USA
• B.S. in Physics, Jul/2007, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Nuevo Leon, Mexico