The Physics & Astronomy Department’s Contributions Recognized at the “Oscars of Science”
By: Jake Mandel
Several members of Tufts’ Physics and Astronomy Department have been recognized by the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, also celebrated as the “Oscars of Science,” for their work on the ATLAS experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
The Breakthrough Prize was created to celebrate the wonders of our scientific age by founding sponsors Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Julia and Yuri Milner, and Anne Wojcicki. The prize recognizes the world’s top scientists working in the Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics, and Mathematics.
The Prize in Fundamental Physics was awarded in April for the global effort of thousands of scientists working at CERN, including four experimental collaborations: ATLAS, ALICE, CMS, and LHCb.
You may already be familiar with the work done by some of these collaborations. The ATLAS and CMS experiments jointly announced the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, the fundamental particle that gives everything in the universe its mass.
“Being awarded this prize,” Professor Pierre-Hugues Beauchemin says, “is a recognition for the dedication and hard work of the experimental high energy physics community involved in the LHC experiments, bringing the frontier of knowledge in the field to an unprecedented height.”
The experimental high energy physics community features scientists from around the world and thousands working at the LHC. The large-scale collaborative success of these experiments stands as a model for collaborations in other fields doing world-class research, such as astrophysics, genomics, climate change, and many others.
Professor Beauchemin leads a research group in the Physics and Astronomy Department actively involved in the ATLAS experiment. Professor Krzysztof Sliwa is also a Breakthrough Prize awardee — though not a current member of the Tufts ATLAS group, he conducted his own ATLAS research and was qualified as an author for work done at Tufts.
The Tufts Elementary Particles Group joined ATLAS in 1994. In recent years, Beauchemin and the Tufts ATLAS Group have focused on deepening our understanding of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) — the theory that describes the strong force, one of nature's four fundamental forces. The group investigates the strong force through precise measurements that could reveal new physics beyond our current theories — that is, beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. This work also pushes forward the search for dark matter, the mysterious invisible substance that makes up a large portion of the universe but has never been directly detected.
Additionally, Beauchemin’s group plays a key role in evaluating the experimental results of other groups and frequently presents the state of research at international conferences, showcasing their prominent position in the field.
Camila Pazos, a PhD candidate in Physics, works on the ATLAS experiment. Pazos’s research involves QCD analysis, “looking at what's actually happening inside protons” when they collide at the LHC. This work helps scientists better understand the strong force described by QCD.
Pazos also highlights the exciting and rewarding nature of working on ATLAS, “The experiment is huge, and many different countries are part of it, so we work with people from many different backgrounds and cultures — it’s great!”
Looking to the future, the LHC will be getting a major upgrade in a few years. This means more data and even more precise measurements can be taken, advancing our understanding of QCD.
The new frontier of experimental high energy physics promises exciting discoveries in quantum mechanics and could help uncover the mysteries of dark matter.
For students wondering about their own future in physics, Professor Beauchemin has encouraging words: “This prize demonstrates how vibrant and thriving the field of experimental high energy physics is, and it is providing promising opportunities for students seeking a career in this field of academic research.”
Congratulations to Professor Beauchemin, Camila Pazos, and all the Tufts team members involved in this achievement.
Current Tufts Contributors:
- Pierre-Hugues Beauchemin (Professor, Physics & Astronomy)
- Krzysztof Sliwa (Professor, Physics & Astronomy)
- Martin Klassen (Postdoctoral Research Associate)
- Nicoletta Garelli (Postdoctoral Research Associate)
- Andrey Dushkin (Senior Mechanical Engineer)
- Camila Pazos (PhD Candidate)
- Veritas Gassmann (PhD Candidate)
- Sam Venetianer (PhD Candidate)
- Michael Miranda (PhD Student)
- Tatiana Azaryan (Technician)
- Tianyi Chen (Master’s Student)
- Ben Johnson (Master’s Student)
- Alexandra Timoney (Undergraduate Student)
- Felix Song (Undergraduate Student)
We also celebrate the contributions of past members of the Tufts ATLAS Group:
- Evelin Meoni (Former Postdoctoral Research Associate)
- Alec Drobac (PhD Graduate)
- Federico Sforza (Former Postdoctoral Research Associate)
- Vincent Croft (Former Postdoctoral Research Associate)
- Colette Kaya (PhD Graduate)
- And many undergraduate students who made valuable contributions