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School of Physical and Chemical Sciences

Dr Ulla Blumenschein

Ulla

Senior Lecturer in Particle Physics

Email: u.blumenschein@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: 020 7882 6967
Room Number: G. O. Jones Building, Room 407
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 9-10 am, Mondays, 1-2pm

Profile

Qualifications:

  • Diploma in Biology (corresponds to an MSci), Mainz University
  • PhD in Physics, Freiburg University
  • Habilitation (higher education qualification), Goettingen University

Research Expertise:

  • Plant physiology (physiological indicators of forest damage)
  • Particle detectors, Calorimetry: Construction of a PbF2 calorimeter and commissioning and operation of a steel-scintillator sampling calorimeter, calibration and monitoring readout, DCS and monitoring software
  • Particle detectors, Trigger: Monitoring, simulation, electron/photon trigger development, operation
  • Particle physics data analysis: QCD and EWK physics: analysis management and review, associated Z/W+jets production; Higgs physics: Yukawa coupling to fermions; Beyond-Standard-Model physics: Search for Supersymmetry (gauginos, leptons), search for heavy charged and neutral Higgs bosons (2HDM and other models), search for heave gauge bosons (Z')
  • Big data, AI (NN and BDT), software: Fortran, C++, python, data skimming and slimming management, analysis software management 

Academic positions:

From 2017 to 2021, I have been PhD progression tutor of the Particle Physics department (PPRC) at the School of Physics and Astronomy. I manage the STFC   PhD Training Grant (PhD scholarships) at the School of Physics and Astronomy for matters.  I am the contact for the Graduate training network GRADnet of the South East Physics network SEPnet and for the NExT Institute.

From 2020-23 I have been deputy exam board chair and acting exam board chair of the School of Physics and Astronomy.  In this role, I have managed the exam paper review and the execution of the semester A and the semester B main exams and of the summer LSR exams, interacted with external examiners and chaired several UG SEB meetings.

I have also been a member of the task forces for the development and implementation of a blended teaching approach at the School of Physics and Astronomy in the academic years 2020/21 and 2021/22. In this functionality, I have worked on the implementation of new assessment strategies and a hybrid classroom approach.

I am external examiner at the University of Edinburgh since 2023

I am a member of the DiRAC Oversight Committee and of the IRIS Resource Scrutiny and Allocation Panel

I am deputy leader of the PPRC ATLAS Level-1 calorimeter trigger group.  

Brief research summary

I have dedicated my physics research to High-energy physics at particle colliders.

During my UG studies at Mainz university, I participated in the construction of the A4 calorimeter at the MAMI accelerator at Mainz University, and in the construction of the Compass experiment at the SPS at CERN in Switzerland.

During my MSc in Mainz, I developed and performed a search for supersymmetric particles, sleptons, indirect production and through gaugino cascades, at the electron-positron collider at LEP. I managed to derive the first lower limit on the selectron mass which was independent of the mass difference to the lightest supersymmetric particle.

For my PhD with Freiburg university, I continued searching for supersymmetry: I established the first search for associated chargino-neutralino production in tri-lepton final states at the D0 experiment at the proton-antiproton collider Tevatron in Illinois. I was also responsible for the calorimeter control system, developed new triggers for isolated electrons and photons and designed the electron/photon trigger suite.

After the PhD, I moved to the ATLAS experiment as a postdoc with  IFAE Barcelona, where I managed the online and offline commissioning and the first operation of the ATLAS Tile calorimeter. I was also responsible for the analogue calibration and monitoring readout system. I developed the first feasibility study for in-situ jet calibration.

As a research assistant with Goettingen University, during LHC Run1, I developed the first measurement of associated Z+jets production and later managed all measurements with W and Z bosons. I also searched for Higgs bosons in decays to 2 tau-leptons. I have developed trigger monitoring software and participated in the operation of the ATLAS detector, as a calorimeter, trigger and monitoring expert and as a shift leader. I was appointed ATLAS analysis software coordinator at the critical phase where we reorganized the software for Run-2.

In LHC Run2, from 2015-2017, I have managed all ATLAS measurements of QCD and electroweak processes, a position where I reported directly to the Physics Coordination. I also published the first Z+jets cross-section measurement at cms energies of 13TeV and established the Higgs-Yukawa coupling to fermions, using Higgs decays to two tau-leptons. I also worked on tau identification and the reconstruction of di-tau final states. I participated in the operation of the ATLAS detector as ARC shift leader. During LHC Run2, I  moved to PPRC at QMUL.

Using the full ATLAS Run-2 data, I have performed the first measurement of the production of Z bosons in association with high-energetic jets. I have published  the first ATLAS measurement of the production of a Z boson in association with charm quarks and a measurement of the production of a Z boson in association with bottom quarks, both key backgrounds to Higgs and BSM searches. I have published a search for  a neutral heavy Higgs boson arising from 2HDM models and for new heavy gauge bosons, in decays to Z or W boson and light Higgs boson. I am preparing a publication for a  heavy charged Higgs bosons in decays to a W boson and a Higgs boson. I have also co-editored a review of ATLAS SM measurements at LHC Run2. 

I have published the first cross-section measurements of W and Z bosons and their cross-section ratios to top-quark production in the new LHC Run-3 at a cms energy of 13.6 TeV and I am preparing for a measurement of  the Yukawa coupling  of the Higgs boson to second-generation fermions, in the  di-muon  decay mode. I am also working on a measurement of the associated production of Z and two charm quarks, the key background  for the measurement of Higgs decays to charm quarks, my next project.

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