Research Techniques Seminar

The Research Techniques Seminar Series highlights novel and exciting experimental techniques, instrumentation approaches, and detector technologies across particle physics and related fields.

The series aims to encourage discussion around detector R&D, experimental methods, calibration, test-beam studies, simulation, reconstruction, and analysis techniques, with an emphasis on work that may lead to new connections or collaborative R&D across different subfields, divisions, and institutions.

We welcome suggestions for speakers whose work would be of interest to the Fermilab community.

The speaker recommendation form takes less than 2 minutes to complete. As part of this series, we want to bring more visibility to the exciting detector R&D, instrumentation, test stands, prototypes, and experimental techniques being developed across Fermilab. The form includes an optional upload section for photos, videos, or other media from relevant projects that you would be happy for us to share. We would love to highlight these contributions on the seminar webpage and in future seminar materials.


Questions, speaker suggestions, or ideas for future topics?
Contact the series coordinators:
Sparshita Dey and
Christina Wang.

Upcoming Seminars

Upcoming Research Techniques Seminar Series talks are listed below. Additional seminar titles and Indico pages will be added once confirmed.

DATE
SPEAKER
TITLE / INDICO

2026

Daniel Dwyer

Daniel Dwyer

Dan Dwyer is a senior staff scientist in the Physics Division at Berkeley Lab, where he heads the neutrino research group. He obtained his Ph.D. from UC-Berkeley in 2007 for the measurement of reactor antineutrino oscillation with the KamLAND experiment, and then led commissioning and data analysis of the Daya Bay Experiment as a post-doc in Caltech’s Kellogg Radiation Laboratory. He received the 2014 APS Henry Primakoff Award for “innovative contributions to neutrino physics”. He joined Berkeley Lab in 2012, where he currently serves as the Technical Lead of the ND-LAr Consortium, an international consortium of over 40 institutions responsible for the design and production of the Liquid Argon Near Detector for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). In 2023 he received the APS-DPF Instrumentation Early Career Award for “his work on 3D pixelated readout technology for liquid argon time projection chambers (LArPix)”.

Jul 14, 2026
Chang-Hong Yu
R&D of Materials for Background Mitigation in LEGEND-1000 | Indico page
Chang-Hong Yu

Chang-Hong Yu

Chang-Hong Yu is a senior scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Since 2008, Chang-Hong’s research has focused on the search for neutrinoless double-beta decay in 76Ge, first with the MAJORANA Collaboration and later with the LEGEND Collaboration. Within the MAJORANA Collaboration, Chang-Hong served as the Operation Manager for 7 years and worked on a parallel data-analysis effort at ORNL. In the LEGEND-1000 Collaboration, Chang-Hong’s primary focus has been research and development aimed at mitigating backgrounds. Prior to working on neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments, Chang-Hong worked in experimental nuclear structure physics, specializing in high-spin spectroscopy and the study of nuclei far from stability using radioactive ion beams.

Aug 25, 2026
Nural Akchurin
TBC | Indico page TBC
Sep 22, 2026
Karl Berggren
TBC | Indico page TBC

Past Seminars

The Research Techniques Seminar Series has featured a broad archive of talks on detector R&D, instrumentation, electronics, calibration, simulation, and experimental techniques. Explore the sections below to view previous seminars.

Seminar Archive Activity

Month-by-month archive activity. Hover over cells for seminar counts.

Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
Fewer

More

2020–2025
DATE
SPEAKER
SLIDES

2025

May 16, 2025
Alessandro Marras, Jennifer Volk

2024

2023

Sep 25, 2023
Bernard Rauscher & Emily Kan
Mar 06, 2023
Bob Hirosky
Mar 06, 2023
Piero Giubilato

2022

CANCELED
Jonathan Asaadi

2021

2020

2015–2019
DATE
SPEAKER
SLIDES

2019

Apr 25, 2019
Nicolo Cartiglia
Mar 26, 2019
Juan Collar
Coherent neutrino scattering: new detectors, and new opportunities. | Indico page
Mar 19, 2019
Mark Popecki
The Large Area Picosecond Photodetector (LAPPD) 8” MCP-PMT: Recent Results. | Indico page
Jan 22, 2019
Christopher Sheehy
21-cm cosmology after 202. Indico page

2018

Gary Varner
ASICs for picosecond timing and toward femtosecond timing
May 22, 2018
Jerry Vavra
May 8, 2018
Andrew Cleland
Superconducting qubits: Nuts and Bolts
Feb 27, 2018
Ryan Heller

2017

Jul 18, 2017
Chris Tully
Graphene FET particle detectors for directional detection of MeV Dark Matter
Jul 6, 2017
Makoto Motoyoshi (Tohoku-MicroTec)
3D-IC technology trends and current development status for stacked pixel detectors
Jun 20, 2017
Gabriella Carini
Jun 16, 2017
Markus Schloesser
The European XFEL – Alignment work and geodetic control network adjustment
Mar 7, 2017
Javier Tiffenberg
Feb 8, 2017
Igor Pastirk, Chuck McFee (SYDOR)
SYDOR Technologies, complex measurements, critical results

2016

Aug 23, 2016
Andrea Gonzalez-Montoro
PET Developments at i3M
Aug 12, 2016
Massimiliano Fiorini
Fast-timing Tracking Detector for High Pile-up Conditions in Particle Physics Experiments
Aug 11, 2016
Yuji Takeuchi
The COBAND project for the search for cosmic background neutrino decay

2015

Nov 3, 2015
Sebastian White
Fast timing detector R&D for the HL-LHC era
Oct 13, 2015
Mike Albrow
A spectrometer for multi-TeV forward particles at the LHC
Apr 14, 2015
Alexandra Junkes
2010–2014
DATE
SPEAKER
SLIDES

2014

Nov 18, 2014
Jose Repond
CALICE: Calorimetry reinvented
Sep 23, 2014
Peter Shirron
Adiabatic demagnetization refrigerators for cooling low-temperature detectors in space
Feb 18, 2014
Jonghee Yoo
R&D for a solid Xenon detector
Jan 8, 2014
Gino Bolla
The present CMS tracker and its future prospects

2013

Dec 18, 2013
Pavel Murat
Nov 15, 2013
Ted Liu
3D architectures for triggering and pattern recognition
Nov 15, 2013
Gregory Deptuch
Sep 30, 2013
Kevin Hickerson
Sep 10, 2013
Dan Levin
Plasma panel detectors for ionizing particles

2012

Oct 2, 2012
Stan Majewski
Particle physics contribution to dedicated innovative brain PET imagers
May 11, 2012
Massimo Mazzillo
May 1, 2012
Lindley Winslow
Apr 12, 2012
George Williams
Mar 13, 2012
Francois Vasey
Prospects for future high speed interconnects and applications in High Energy Physics

2011

Nov 11, 2011
Richard Wigmans
DREAM – Towards high resolution jet spectroscopy
Aug 9, 2011
Rao, Rani
Detector Development at Bharat Electronics
Jul 19, 2011
Gustavo Cancelo, Juan Estrada
Jul 15, 2011
Andrei Nomerotski
May 2, 2011
Shashank Priya
High performance textured relaxor-PT/PZT piezoelectric materials
Feb 15, 2011
Kyung Kwang Joo
Jan 26, 2011
Claudio Piemonte

2010

Dec 2, 2010
Guido Magazzu
FF-LYNX: Protocol and IP-Cores for integrated control and readout in future HEP experiments
Nov 8, 2010
Francesca Nessi-Tedaldi
An overview of results on scintillating crystals exposed to high hadron fluences
Oct 28, 2010
Andrey Vasilev
Scintillators for new HEP calorimeters: What properties are not well understood?
Sep 14, 2010
Gustavo Cancelo
2005–2009
DATE
SPEAKER
SLIDES

2009

Dec 1, 2009
Maxim Titov
The RD51 Collaboration – Development of Micro-Pattern Gas Detectors technologies
Oct 23, 2009
Alexander Gektin
New generation of HEP scintillator: search and development criteria
Jul 28, 2009
Jeff Martoff
Jul 7, 2009
Maurice Garcia-Sciveres

2008

Oct 31, 2008
Harry van der Graaf
Oct 2, 2008
Nicoleta Dinu
Electro-optical characterization of SiPM detectors

2007

Nov 8, 2007
Adam Para
Oct 1, 2007
Themis Bowcock
Aug 9, 2007
Aldo Penzo
Jun 14, 2007
James Hamilton
Diamonds in Washington and Volcanic Dust in Hawaii: Optical surface studies using first contact polymers
May 14, 2007
Giorgio Giacomelli
Magnetic Monopole Searches
Mar 12, 2007
Max Goncharov
Mar 6, 2007
Dawei Zheng
Kotura, Silicon Photonic technology and capabilities
Feb 27, 2007
Howard Wieman
A high resolution vertex detector for the STAR experiment at RHIC
Feb 12, 2007
Carl Jackson, Kieran Flynn
Low light sensing with silicon photomultipliers

2006

Oct 31, 2006
Philippe Gorodetzky
Precise absolute calibration of a PMT in a single photoelectron mode
Jul 17, 2006
Marcel Trimpl

2005

Nov 9, 2005
Vasile Buzuloiu
Aug 10, 2005
Steve Worm
Jul 27, 2005
Malcolm Ellis
Jul 13, 2005
Henry Frisch, Harold Sanders
Jun 1, 2005
Tom Shutt
2000–2004
DATE
SPEAKER
SLIDES

2004

Nov 18, 2004
Mike Ronan
Jul 7, 2004
Silvia Schuh
High precision x-ray tomography in quality control for the ATLAS muon spectrometer
May 19, 2004
Jun Miyamoto

2003

Oct 15, 2003
Jim Freeman
Highlights of the Erice Workshop on innovative detectors for supercoliders
Aug 19, 2003
Reiner Klingenberg
Design, status and progress of the ATLAS pixel detector
May 27, 2003
Nicoleta Dinu
Electrical characterization of silicon micro-strip sensors

Seminar Series Coordinators

The Research Techniques Seminar Series is currently coordinated by:

  • Sparshita Dey and Christina Wang (2026–)

Past coordinators:

  • Javier Tiffenberg
  • Petra Merkel