Christoph M. E. Paus

Biography

"Education 1985–87 Soldier at the German Bundeswehr 1987 Interrogation Officer in Polish language Rheinisch Westfälische Technische Hochschule, Aachen (1987–96): 1989 Pre-Diploma Mechanical Engineering 1990 Pre-Diploma Physics 1990 Pre-Diploma Mathematics 1992 Diploma Mechanical Engineer 1996 Ph.D. Physics Honors Borchers Medal of Honor for Ph.D. Thesis Research Positions 2004–present Associate Professor of Physics, MIT 2000–present Co-Convener of the B Reconstruction and Tagging Group at CDF 1999–present Co-Leader of the Time-of-Flight Project at CDF 1998–present Co-Leader of the Level3 PC Farm Project at CDF 1994–present Member of the LEP Electroweak Working Group 1999–2004 Assistant Professor of Physics, MIT 1999–2000 Co-Convener of the Mixing and Lifetime Working Group at CDF 1997–98 Co-Convener of the LEP Fermion Pair Working Group 1997–98 CERN Fellow 1996–98 Member of the Scientific Publication Committee of the L3 Experiment 1996–98 Co-Convener of the Fermion Pair Production Analysis Group at L3 Experiment"

Research Interest

"Since its inception about 100 years ago particle physics has made amazing progress in understanding what matter is and what forces act on it. Nevertheless, there are a number of fundamental and seemingly simple questions we do not yet know the answer to. My present research focuses on one of those fundamental question which is how particles acquire their mass. We know very well that particles have masses, but have not yet been able to show experimentally through which mechanism it happens. Therefore, we will need to find a missing particle, the Higgs boson, which we believe is responsible for the fact that all particles have mass. The quest for the Higgs boson is presently my main research objective. In experimental particle physics we make use of Einstein’s fundamental observation that mass, m, and energy, E, can be converted into each other through a simple constant c2: E = mc2. This means the higher the energy in the particle collision the higher the mass of the particles we can produce. As a rule of thumb the particles we are looking for, like the Higgs boson, are of high mass and thus the higher the energy the more discovery potential the collision has. Another feature of particle collisions is that the higher the particle’s mass the rarer its production. Thus it is very important to have intense particle beams to increase the number of collisions we can produce and analyze in a given amount of time. For my research I am recording and analyzing data of high-energy proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. With the LHC the energy and intensity frontiers make a quantum leap forward with the collision energy increasing by a factor of seven while the intensity increases by two orders of magnitude with respect to the most powerful existing machine, the Tevatron at Fermilab. There is no certainty of what is going to happen, but I believe we are at the brink of something big as collisions at the LHC are about to open a door to truly uncharted territory."