Kerstin M. Perez
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Kerstin M. Perez Address Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laboratory of Nuclear Science 77 Massachusetts Ave, 26-541 Cambridge, MA 02139 Email [email protected] Phone (617) 324-1522 APPOINTMENTS Assistant Professor of Physics 2016 { present MIT, Cambridge, MA Assistant Professor of Physics 2015 { 2016 Haverford College, Haverford, PA NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow 2012 { 2014 Postdoctoral Research Scientist 2011 { 2012 Columbia University, New York, NY EDUCATION California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA Ph.D., Physics 2011 Thesis: Inclusive Jet Cross Sections in Proton-Proton Collisions at 7.0 TeV Center-of-Mass Energy with the ATLAS Detector at the Large Hadron Collider Columbia University, New York, NY B.A. in Physics, Minor in Mathematics 2005 AWARDS AND HONORS Cottrell Scholar Award 2019 { 2022 Sloan Research Fellowship 2017 { 2019 MIT School of Science Teaching Prize for Undergraduate Education 2018 MIT Buechner Special Teaching Award 2018 NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship 2012 { 2014 NSF US LHC Graduate Student Support Award 2010 - 2011 Robert A. Millikan Graduate Fellowship 2006 { 2007 GRANTS RCSA Cottrell Scholar Award (PI) 2019 - 2022 Closing in on Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter, ID 25928. Cottrell Scholar Collaborative (Co-I) 2019 - 2021 Establishing a Network for Effective Interventions in STEM Classrooms Heising-Simons Foundation, Fundamental Physics Grant (PI) 2019 - 2020 Fabricating the Si(Li) Tracker Array for the GAPS Experiment, ID 2019-1357. NASA NuSTAR Guest Observer Cycle-5 (PI) 2019 - 2020 A Novel Probe of Low-Mass Axion Dark Matter Using Betelgeuse, Prop. 5057. Heising-Simons Foundation, Fundamental Physics Grant (PI) 2018 - 2021 Construction, flight, and first dark matter results of the GAPS Si system, ID 2018-0766. NASA NuSTAR Guest Observer Cycle-4 (PI) 2018 - 2020 Optimizing Sensitivity to Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter in the Galactic Center, Prop. 4261. Heising-Simons Foundation, Fundamental Physics Grant (PI) 2017 - 2019 Finalizing the Si detector program for the GAPS dark matter experiment, ID 2017-243. NASA Astrophysics Research and Analysis (Co-I) 2017 - 2021 The GAPS Experiment: A Search for Dark Matter Using Low Energy Antiprotons and An- tideuterons, NNX17AB44G. RCSA, Cottrell College Science Award (PI) 2015 - 2017 Developing Novel Detectors to Search for the Particle Origins of Dark Matter with the GAPS Experiment, ID 23194. CURRENT RESEARCH Antinuclei signatures of dark matter with GAPS · Leading the semiconducting Si detector development for the GAPS experiment, a balloon-borne dark matter search utilizing cosmic-ray antiprotons, antideuterons, and antihelium in an unprecedented low-energy range. Galactic center and dark matter physics with the NuSTAR X-ray observatory · Investigating the Galactic Center region, in particular new insights on stellar remnant populations and cosmic-ray acceleration from inner-parsec to inner-kiloparsec scales. · Pursuing X-ray signatures of dark matter particle physics processes, in particular sterile neutrinos and axions. Developing X-ray optics for axion research with IAXO/BabyIAXO · Member of the Collaboration Board for the International Axion Observatory, a next- generation axion helioscope. · R&D and construction of the focusing X-ray optics for the pathfinder BabyIAXO and ultimate IAXO instruments. 2 TEACHING 8.02 (Electricity & Magnetism, Technology Enhanced Active Learning), MIT 2016 - 2018 8.13 (Experimental Physics I, \Junior Laboratory"), MIT 2017 - 2018 Phys 211 (Laboratories in Electronics and Waves), Haverford College 2015-2016 Phys 213 (Oscillations and Waves), Haverford College 2015 Phys 301 (Laboratories in Quantum Physics), Haverford College 2015-2016 Explorations in Science (designed and led course in modern scientific research for 9-11 grade students), Double Discovery Center at Columbia University 2013-2014 MENTORING Postdoctoral Scholars · Mengjiao Xiao (2018-present), Shuo Zhang (2017-2019, Hubble Fellowship and Asst. Prof. at Bard College), Rachel Carr (2016-2017, Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow in MIT's Laboratory for Nuclear Security and Policy). Graduate Students · Field Rogers (2016-present, NSF Graduate Student Fellowship), Brandon Roach (2017- present). Post-baccalaureate Students · Tyler Erjavec (2016-2018, Ph.D. program at UC Davis). Undergraduate Students · MIT: Nishat Protyasha ('22, 2019-present), Devin Seyler ('22, 2019-present), Afura Taylor (`21, 2018-present), Jonathon Brown (`20, 2016-present), Ivy Li (`20, 2017- present), Talla Babou (`19, 2017-2019, Science Policy Fellowship at the Institute for Defense Analysis), Radhika Bhatt (`19, 2017-2019, NASA JPL intern and Caltech Ph.D. program in physics), Evan Tey (`19, 2017-2018, MIT Masters in CS), Allen Cheng (`19, 2015-2016), Lawson Kosulic (`19, 2015-2016), Federico Llarena (`20, 2015- 2016). · Haverford College: Cora Hersch (`16, 2015-2016, Woods Hole Research Center staff and MIT Ph.D program in EAPS), Jiayue Wang (`16, 2015-2016, Stanford Ph.D. pro- gram in Operations Research), Rui Fang (`17, 2015-2016, Harvard Masters program in Computational Science & Engineering), Andrew Szczurek (2015-2016). SELECTED PRESENTATIONS AND SEMINARS · Indirect Searches: Scanning the Sky for Dark Matter Particles. Invited plenary at APS Division of Particles and Fields, Boston, MA, July 2019. · Scanning the Sky for Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter. Colloquium at Columbia University, New York, NY, January 2019. Colloquium at Northeastern University, Boston, MA, January 2019. 3 · Lithium-drifted Silicon Detectors for the GAPS Antarctic Balloon Program. Invited contribution to CPAD Instrumentation Frontier Workshop, Providence, RI, December 2018. · Cosmic-ray Antinuclei: New Inputs on Dark Matter. Invited overview at PASCOS, Columbus, OH, June 2018. · Antideuteron Signatures of Dark Matter with the GAPS Experiment. Colloquium at Michigan State University, Lansing, MI, April 2019. Colloquium at Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, October 2018. Colloquium at University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, August 2018. Presentation at IDM 2018, Providence, RI, July 2018. Seminar at Yale University, New Haven, CT, January 2018. Seminar at UMass Amherst, Amherst, MA, December 2017. Presentation at TeVPA 2017, Columbus, OH 2017. Colloquium at Stanford University, Stanford, CA, March 2017. Colloquium at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, March 2016. Seminar at Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, March 2016. Colloquium at MIT, Cambridge, MA, March 2015. Seminar at University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, February 2015. Colloquium at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, December 2014. Seminar at MIT, Boston, MA, April 2014. Colloquium at Northeastern University, Boston, MA, April 2014. Seminar at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, December, 2013. · The High-Energy X-ray View of the Galactic Center. Seminar at McGill, Montreal, Canada, October 2017. CCAPP Seminar at OSU, Columbus, OH, April 2017. Colloquium at MIT, Cambridge, MA, December 2016. Seminar at Harvard, Cambridge, MA, December 2016. Invited presentation at IAU Symposium 322: Multi-Messenger Astrophysics of the Galactic Centre, Palm Cove, Australia, July 2016. · Stellar remnant and diffuse emission throughout the Galactic Center. Invited presentation at public NuSTAR Science Meeting, Pasadena, CA, Nov. 2016. · Terrestrial and Astrophysical Probes of Axion-Like Particles. Invited presentation at Princeton Workshop on Non-WIMP Dark Matter, Nov. 2016. · Current Experimental Searches for Dark Matter: WIMPs and Beyond. Invited overview at Lake Louise Winter Institute, Lake Louise, Canada, February 2016. · Galactic Center Diffuse Emission. Presentation in NuSTAR special session at AAS HEAD division meeting, Chicago, IL, August 2014. · Results from NuSTAR. Invited presentation at 26th Rencontres de Blois on Particle Physics and Cosmology, Blois, France, May 2014. 4 · Future Astroparticle Searches for Dark Matter. Invited overview at Latest Results in Dark Matter Searches Workshop, NORDITA, Stockholm, Sweden, May 2014. · Unsolved Problems in Astrophysics: Particle Searches for Dark Matter. Guest lecture for CUNY Honors course, AMNH, New York, NY, May 2014. · Morphology of the Galactic Center with NuSTAR. Seminar at MIT, Boston, MA, April 2014. · Progress on Large-Scale, Low-Cost Si(Li) Detector Fabrication for the GAPS Balloon Mission. Poster presented at IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, Seoul, South Korea, October-November 2013. · The GAPS Experiment: Hunting for Dark Matter with Antideuterons. Presentation at 33rd International Cosmic Ray Conference, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 2013. Presentation at NSF AAPF Symposium, Long Beach, CA, January 2013. · Jet Cross Section Measurements in ATLAS. Presentation at Implications of First LHC Data Workshop, Boston, MA, August 2010. · Choice of Jet Algorithms in ATLAS. Presentation at School of Subnuclear Physics, Erice, Italy, September 2009. SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS Peer-Reviewed Publications Note: For publications with more than 10 authors, I list only the first three authors and my rank among all authors. · B. M. Roach, K. C. Y. Ng, K. Perez, J. F. Beacom, S. Horiuchi, R. Krivonos, D. R. Wik, NuSTAR Tests of Sterile-Neutrino Dark Matter: New Galactic Bulge Observa- tions and Combined Impact, submitted to Phys. Rev. D. (2019) arXiv:1908.09037. · S. Zhang, Z. Zhu, H. Li, et al. (8 out of 10), NuSTAR and Chandra Observation of the Non-thermal Filament G0.13-0.11: A Pulsar Wind Nebula Driven Magnetic Filament, submitted to Astrophysical Journal