Stanford University


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  • Philip Schuster

    Philip Schuster

    Professor of Particle Physics and Astrophysics

    BioProfessor Schuster is a theoretical physicist focused on identifying dark matter and its properties, developing concepts for new experimental tests of physics beyond the Standard Model, and studying novel theories of long-range forces. He is also directly involved in several experimental efforts as co-spokesperson for APEX, a founding member and physics coordinator for LDMX, and as a founding member of HPS.

    Prospective graduate students interested in research rotations should contact Professor Schuster directly. Recent research directions include new ideas to detect axions, milli-charge dark matter, the use of novel accelerator experiments to search for light WIMP-like dark matter, and generalizations of gauge theories that include massless particles with continuous spin. Publications are listed on INSPIRE.

    Professor Schuster is also chair of the Particle Physics & Astrophysics department at Stanford’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

  • Hirohisa A. Tanaka

    Hirohisa A. Tanaka

    Professor of Particle Physics and Astrophysics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsParticle physics and astrophysics, neutrino properties, dark matter

  • Caterina Vernieri

    Caterina Vernieri

    Assistant Professor of Particle Physics and Astrophysics

    BioCaterina Vernieri received her PhD on the CMS experiment from the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy, in 2014 and then moved to Chicago for a postdoctoral fellowship at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. She joined SLAC in 2018 as a Panofsky Fellow and moved to the ATLAS experiment, and in 2022 she became Assistant Professor.
    Throughout this time, she has been devoted to studying the Higgs boson using data from the LHC. She co-led the group in the CMS experiment studying the Higgs decay to b quarks at the time that this important decay process was finally discovered in the data. At SLAC, Caterina is working with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC with a focus on Higgs physics. She is responsible for the integration activities at SLAC of the new ATLAS Pixel Inner Tracker detector.
    She was also co-convener of the group on Higgs boson properties in the US national study of the future of particle physics.

  • Risa Wechsler

    Risa Wechsler

    Director, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), Humanities and Sciences Professor and Professor of Physics and of Particle Physics and Astrophysics

    BioRisa Wechsler is the Humanities and Sciences Professor and the Director of the Kavli Institute of Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. She is also Professor of Physics and Professor of Particle Physics & Astrophysics at SLAC National Laboratory, Director of the Center for Decoding the Universe, and an Associate Director at Stanford Data Science. She is a cosmologist whose work investigates some of the most profound questions about our universe — how it formed, what it is made of, how it is structured, and what its future holds.

    Her research focuses on understanding the evolution of galaxies, the large-scale structure of the universe, and the nature of dark matter and dark energy. She uses large numerical simulations, theoretical models, and the largest observed maps of the universe to explore these forces that shape the cosmos. Her recent work also investigates the formation and cosmological context of the Milky Way and probes dark matter through small-scale cosmic structure, and explores how data science and AI/ML can drive new understanding. Wechsler has played key leadership roles in major international collaborations including the Dark Energy Survey, Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, and Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and time, a decade-long survey that will reveal the dynamic universe in unprecedented detail. She is recently involved in the Via Survey, which will map the Milky Way at high precision to probe dark matter physics in new ways.

    Wechsler is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.