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The ECRP recipients. Top, from left: Timon Heim, Harrison Lisabeth, Aditi Krishnapriyan. Bottom, from left: Daniel Carney, Callum Wilkinson. (Credit: Jenny Weger\/Berkeley Lab)<\/p>\n
The researchers will receive funding to pursue high-impact projects.<\/p>\n
Five scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have received Early Career Research Program (ECRP)<\/a> awards from the Department of Energy. The ECRP program, now in its 16th year, was established to bolster the nation\u2019s scientific workforce by supporting exceptional researchers at the outset of their careers, when many scientists do their most formative work. Recipients use the funding to pursue projects that have the potential to solve scientific challenges and advance the country\u2019s STEM capabilities.<\/p>\n To be eligible for the program, a researcher must be an untenured, tenure-track assistant or associate professor at a U.S. academic institution, or a full-time employee at a DOE national laboratory or Office of Science user facility, who is within 10 years of having earned their doctorate. Awards to an institution of higher education will be approximately $875,000 over five years, and awards to a DOE national laboratory or Office of Science user facility will be approximately $2,750,000 over five years.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s Berkeley Lab awardees and their projects are listed below:<\/p>\n Timon Heim: Better detectors for more powerful particle colliders<\/p>\n Timon Heim is a staff scientist in the Physics Division. His ECRP project will develop a new type of detector that can track the particles generated by collisions in particle colliders with high spatial and temporal resolution. Current detectors in use at high-energy colliders, like the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, can track the trajectory and measure momentum of particles, but they can\u2019t track a particle\u2019s time of arrival with sufficient precision to discern from which of the many particle interactions they originate. Heim\u2019s proposed technology \u2014 called a 4D tracking detector, because it captures data about particles\u2019 positions in space and time \u2014 aims to solve this challenge, allowing researchers to glean more precise data from collision experiments to uncover new insights into fundamental forces and potentially discover new particles.<\/p>\n The enhanced capabilities of 4D detectors will be a necessity for experiments at future colliders, such as the Muon Collider or Future Circular Collider. The project will develop custom microelectronics that process the signal of a pixelated silicon sensor that can register charged particles passing through it in an extreme radiation environment that these colliders produce during operation. The goal is to measure individual particles\u2019 position with 50-micro-meter spatial and 50 pico-second (one trillionth of a second) temporal precision, for an incoming flux of around 1 billion particles per second per square centimeter.<\/p>\n Harrison Lisabeth: Studying underground processes to unleash abundant energy<\/p>\n Harrison Lisabeth is a research scientist in the Energy Geoscience Division focused on combining real-world experiments and AI to guide development of geothermal energy systems. His project will explore how deep underground rock formations \u2013 where geothermal wells are dug \u2013 are stressed by chemical reactions of the minerals and mechanical strain from movements in the Earth. A better understanding of subsurface stresses is essential to engineer safe and reliable geothermal wells that access the heat of deep rocks to produce electricity. It is estimated that the U.S. could generate ten times the amount of energy needed to power the grid using geothermal sources.<\/p>\n Lisabeth plans to simulate how minerals grow, dissolve, and influence the behavior of surrounding rock in geothermal reservoirs by tracking chemical changes in rock samples under pressure in the lab. The project will also develop machine learning models to predict geologic strain based on field measurements and refine existing models that describe how common rock types deform under stress. Combining these approaches, Lisabeth hopes to develop a framework to predict stress to improve stability and longevity of geothermal wells.<\/p>\n Daniel Carney: Pushing the quantum boundaries of particle measurement<\/p>\n Daniel Carney is a staff scientist in the Physics Division who uses quantum information science to study particle physics and gravity. At very small scales, \u201cquantum noise\u201d \u2014 random fluctuations from the act of measurement \u2014 can drown out faint signals from rare processes. Carney\u2019s ECRP project, \u201cFundamental Physics at the Quantum Limits of Measurement,\u201d aims to build a new mechanical quantum sensor that can measure extremely small particle interactions below the limits of that quantum noise. The approach uses lasers to hold a tiny bead containing radioactive atoms; when one decays, the system measures the bead\u2019s motion and the energy of any particles emitted.<\/p>\n The experiment\u2019s initial goal is to search for heavy sterile neutrinos, hypothetical particles predicted by some extensions of the Standard Model. The system could also help measure the mass of the neutrino, study the way particles interact through the electromagnetic and weak forces, and hunt for low-mass dark matter \u2014 all unsolved mysteries in particle physics.<\/p>\n Callum Wilkinson: Using machine learning to demystify neutrinos<\/p>\n Callum Wilkinson is a staff scientist in the Physics Division and part of the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) hosted by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. DUNE will create an intense beam of neutrinos that interact in detectors in Illinois and, after an 800-mile journey through the earth, in massive detectors in South Dakota. By precisely measuring neutrinos and how they change, researchers will get a better understanding of their fundamental properties and whether they are responsible for why there is so much more matter than antimatter in our universe.<\/p>\n Wilkinson\u2019s ECRP project will apply two machine learning techniques to improve the analysis of DUNE\u2019s data and enhance the experiment\u2019s precision. One approach will look for hidden patterns in how neutrinos interact and produce low-energy particles, while the other will help correct for distortions in what the detectors record. The methods will be tested on one of DUNE\u2019s prototype detectors and could be used in other neutrino experiments, improving their measurements and helping scientists build better models.<\/p>\n Aditi Krishnapriyan: Machine learning methods that scale as datasets grow<\/p>\n Aditi Krishnapriyan<\/a> is a faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab\u2019s Applied Mathematics and Computational Research Division (AMCR) and assistant professor at UC Berkeley. Her project, awarded through UC Berkeley, will develop machine learning methods that scale with dataset size for modeling complex, multi-scale phenomena. The resulting tools can be applied in a wide range of research, including the study of new electrolytes for batteries or the examination of molecular interactions.<\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory<\/a> (Berkeley Lab) is committed to groundbreaking research focused on discovery science and solutions for abundant and reliable energy supplies. The lab\u2019s expertise spans materials, chemistry, physics, biology, earth and environmental science, mathematics, and computing. Researchers from around the world rely on the lab\u2019s world-class scientific facilities for their own pioneering research. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest problems are best addressed by teams, Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 17 Nobel Prizes. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s Office of Science.<\/p>\n DOE\u2019s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov\/science<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ECRP recipients. Top, from left: Timon Heim, Harrison Lisabeth, Aditi Krishnapriyan. 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