Postdoctoral Fellowship: MPS-Ascend: Jet-Energy Loss Measurements with the sPHENIX Detector

Anthony Hodges is awarded an NSF Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to conduct a program of research and activities related to broadening participation by groups underrepresented in STEM. This fellowship to Dr. Hodges supports his research project entitled " Postdoctoral Fellowship: MPS-Ascend: Jet-Energy Loss Measurements with the sPHENIX Detector", under the mentorship of a sponsoring scientist. The host institution for the fellowship is the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Anne Sickles. Dr. Hodges will pursue a research project to better understand the nuclear strong force and Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) at extreme temperatures by measuring properties of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) produced in high-energy collisions between large nuclei. The studies in this proposal will utilize a new, state-of-the-art particle detector known as sPHENIX, which will begin collecting data from nuclear collisions produced by the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the summer of 2023. Hodges will have a wide range of outreach activities including mentoring high school students through the Grainger College of Engineering’s Young Scholars (GEnYuS) program, engaging in recruitment through the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP), kick-start sponsorship opportunities for other minority science individuals, and engage in local efforts at the Long Island Science Center STEAM Museum to elevate under-represented minorities in STEM. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.