Maverick selected for prestigious DOE research program
A graduate student from The University of Texas at Arlington is one of only 62 students nationwide to be selected for the prestigious Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program.
Hector Carranza, a Ph.D. student in physics at UTA, will spend a year conducting research on light-mass dark matter searches at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab, in Batavia, Ill.
He will work with Fermilab scientist Angela Fava on the ICARUS neutrino experiment, work that may point to a new kind of neutrino called the sterile neutrino.
“My passion is pursuing the mystery of dark matter in physics,” Carranza said. “This opportunity with the Department of Energy will allow me to conduct important experimental research regarding dark matter in a place where amazing scientists reside. It’s really a pleasure to have the chance to work with them for a year.”
The goal of the SCGSR program is to prepare U.S. graduate students for STEM careers critically important to the DOE Office of Science’s mission by providing graduate thesis research opportunities at DOE laboratories. The program plays an important role in sustaining a pipeline for highly skilled scientific and technological workforce development.
Carranza began pursuing the SCGSR award while stationed at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland working on the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, or DUNE, a leading-edge international experiment for neutrino science and proton decay studies. His work focused on the ProtoDUNE dual-phase detector.
He said his excitement for physics began unexpectedly as a child when his father brought home a book on geography.
“The first chapter of the book was about the universe and its different components,” said Carranza, who attended California State University, Dominguez Hills as an undergraduate student. “I was a young kid and the illustrations caught my attention. I said to myself, ‘How is there this much out there, and I can barely see any of it with my eye? Why is everything so full of color?’”
Initially interested in space physics, Carranza credits the diverse physics program at UTA with bringing him to his ultimate focus on particle physics and dark matter. He appreciates that his advisers Jaehoon Yu, professor of physics, and Jonathan Assadi, assistant professor of physics, took the time to discuss concepts and cultivate his interests.
“The universe is beautiful, and it’s equally beautiful how humans have been able to slowly unlock its secrets,” Carranza said. “As a long-standing mystery, dark matter holds the key to understanding even more. I want to pursue this mystery and hopefully, after a lot of hard work, understand what dark matter really is.”