Experience (Work / Teaching)¶
Current position
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz¶
Postdoctoral Research Associate¶
January 2024 - now, Institut für Physik (ETAP)¶
Research
Data analysis with the ATLAS experiment
- Top Quark Physics: Top Cross Section, Charge / Energy Asymmetry (analysis methods, event reconstruction with ML techniques, note editor)
- Exotics: CalRatio + top (analysis strategy, framework design, analysis contact)
Upgrade for HL-LHC: High Granularity Timing Detector
- Production Database (development, documentation, training, communication), especially for Module / Assembly Group, slot table creation and deployment of API tools, grafana monitoring
- 3D Model Validation (CAD, .step files)
- Flex Tails (length computation, length validation (mechanics), modeling in ProdDB)
Leadership / Service
For ATLAS
- Top Reconstruction Convener
- Co-Organization Top WS (Hackathon, May 2026)
- Analysis software development / maintenance
- Analysis review and user support
- Analysis Contact (= co-leader of the analysis team)
- Database Contact HGTD - Module / Assembly
- Database Tutorial Instructor / Facilitator during Expert Week (November 2025)
- y-ATLAS Local Representative for Mainz (ECR documentation)
- Co-Organization of ATLAS Mainz Workshop (January 2026) and assistant at ATLAS-D meeting (September 2024)
For the institute
- Co-Organization of local events / meetups
Reviewer for...
- JOSS
Teaching and Supervision
Lectures / Tutorials / Exams
- Scales and Structures of Matter (M.Ed.), aka Experimental Physics 4
- Particle Detectors (M.Sc.)
- Nuclear- and Particle Physics (M.Sc./B.Sc.), aka Experimental Physics 5b
Supervision
- 3 PhD students (ongoing, 3x physics analysis and for 1 candidate Local Supervisor of the Authorship Qualification Project in ATLAS)
- Top reconstruction / properties
- Exotics search / LLPs
- 1 Master student (ongoing)
- Top reconstruction / properties
- 1 Bachelor student (finished)
- Top reconstruction
Earlier
RWTH Aachen University¶
Scientific Employee (PhD Student)¶
November 2021 - December 2023, Physics Institute III A¶
Research
Jet tagging techniques (deep learning and AI safety) in CMS
- Transformer models exploiting low-level features and new algorithms: improving not only performance, but also robustness - withstanding input distortions, generalization to experimental data, being trained on (augmented) simulation only. Core contributions: algorithm design and validation, data/MC agreement studies, framework development and maintenance with which such studies are possible already at the R&D stage (with time + disk space savings and decision making early on w.r.t. standard workflow as seen in commissioning).
- For LHC Run 3: CMS will use the first (adversarially) robust tagger in production, new analyses can profit, for example when studying Higgs boson properties (e.g. coupling to charm quarks). Core contributions: integration of novel algorithms in official software, ONNX deployment, initial setup of VHcc Zll channel in python framework for the next analysis round.
Open Data
- Setup of kaggle dataset giving access to low-level quantities as used in LHC jet tagging workflows, not requiring the experiment software to be installed.
- Investigation of model interpretability, e.g. loss surface studies.
Teaching and Supervision
Lectures / Tutorials / Exams
- Data Processing in Physics (B.Sc.), coordinator
- Laboratory Course Particle Physics (M.Sc.), top quark physics
- Advanced Laboratory Course (B.Sc.)
Supervision
- 3 Master students (finished)
- Interpretability b-tagging
- AI safety DeepJet
- VHcc analysis
- 1 DAAD Rise Germany Internship undergrad. student (finished)
- CMS Open Data for AI safety studies
Service
For CMS
- BTV Reconstruction Contact
- CMSDAS facilitator
- Pull Request reviews (CMSSW and others)
- Framework development / maintenance
- Commissioning
- Extension of special data tier with additional features for Run 3 studies
- Maintenance of monitoring trigger skim for b-tagging at HLT
For the Research Training Group "Physics of the Heaviest Particles at the LHC"
- Co-Organizer of the Annual Retreat (2022)
- Co-Organizer of the RTG Colloquium (2022 - 2023)
Reviewer for...
- EPJ C
- JOSS
Student Assistant¶
April 2021 - May 2021, Physics Institute III B¶
Editing / proofreading of course material for students in the first semester, with online content related to Experimental Physics 1. My tasks included checking the technical correctness (physics), language, layout and formatting using MathJax (a LaTeX derivative for JavaScript). Cooperation with Springer for distribution of the content.
Student Assistant¶
October 2019 - January 2020 and April 2020 - August 2020, Physics Institute II A¶
Tutor for an exercise class in Experimental Physics 1 and 2. My tasks included grading student's course assignments, as well as providing a weekly tutorial session and supervising the exam.
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz¶
Student Assistant¶
April 2019 - July 2019, Institut für Physik¶
Tutor for an exercise class in Experimental Physics 2. My tasks included grading student's course assignments, as well as providing a weekly tutorial session. At the end of the semester, I supervised and graded the final exam.
Student Assistant¶
October 2017 - April 2018, April 2018 - July 2018, and October 2018 - February 2019, Institut für Physik¶
Tutor for an exercise class in Mathematical Methods (B. Sc.) (3x). My tasks included grading student's course assignments, as well as providing a weekly tutorial session. At the end of the semester, I supervised and graded the final exam.
Student Assistant¶
October 2017 - February 2018, Dekanat FB 08¶
Tutor for the "Lernwerkstatt Mathematik". Coaching undergraduate students in mathematics (or other areas in STEM, like physics or computer science). My tasks included helping students with their weekly homework, pointing them to relevant resources (e.g. books, web), giving hints, explaining course material and concepts (examples: proof techniques, problemsolving, learning strategies) or simply supporting students in their first semesters.