Students

Austin Abbott, Texas A&M University

Austin Abbott

Austin Abbott is a graduate student at Texas A&M University who works under Dr. Sherry Yennello at the TAMU Cyclotron Institute. His research involves studying (d,p) reactions as a surrogate for (n,γ) reactions, specifically that of 59Fe(d,p)60Fe, and measuring the resulting γ-ray strength function which will help to constrain astrophysical models for processes in nucleosynthesis. Other research interests include alpha-alpha correlation functions in heavy ion collisions.You can download a poster of Abbott's research.

Ibrahim Abdurrahman, University of Washington

Ibrahim Abdurrahman

Ibrahim Abdurrahman is a graduate student at the University of Washington working under Professor Aurel Bulgac.  His research focuses on understanding nuclear dynamics, such as collisions or fission, using microscopic approaches.  Currently we are completing projects involving the fission of 236U and the collision of two 238U nuclei.  You can download a poster of Abdurrahman's research.

Caleb Benetti, Florida State University

Caleb Benetti

Caleb Benetti is a graduate research assistant working under Dr. Sam Tabor on gamma ray spectroscopy and nuclear structure at The John D. Fox Superconducting Linear Accelerator Laboratory at Florida State. Isotopes of interest are 37Ar and 29Si, with and ongoing program for gamma tagging of decay fragments in induced fission of 242Pu. He is involved in the building and commissioning of the Clarion2 HPGe array. You can download a poster of Benetti's research.

Rachel Malecek, Louisiana State University
Rachel Malecek

Rachel Malecek is a graduate research assistant with Prof. Scott Marley. Malecek is interested in studying the structure and decay properties of light-mass, unstable atomic nuclei with transfer reaction experiments then testing modern theoretical approaches to the nuclear many-body problem. You can download a poster on Malecek's research.

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David McClain, Texas A&M University

David McClain

David McClain is a graduate student at the Texas A&M University Cyclotron Institute working under Dr. Dan Melconian. He is a part of a collaboration working to measure the Fierz parameter through the beta decay energy measurements of 6He. His research involves the understanding and development of a Penning trap for a Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy experiment. You can download a poster on McClain's research.
Ashton Morelock, Florida State University

Ashton Morelock

Ashton Morelock is a graduate Research Assistant at Florida State University working with Dr. Sergio Almaraz-Calderon. Her research currently involves expansion of the CATRiNA neutron detector array and development of an algorithm to extract neutron energies without relying on ToF information using a method called spectrum unfolding

Morgan Nasser, Texas A&M University

Morgan Nasser

Mr. Nasser is a member of Dan Melconian's research group at the Cyclotron Institute.

The Melconian group is developing TAMUTRAP, the largest Penning trap in the world, to be used for T=2 ß-delayed proton emission studies.  This will serve as a probe of the fundamental structure of the electroweak interaction in the Standard Model. Mr. Nasser is concluding studies regarding ion motion manipulation and mass measurements, as well as the development of programs pertaining to them. Going forward, he'll be continuing the simulations for 32Ar experimentation in preparation for the main experiment. You can download a poster on Nasser's research.

Thomas Onyango, Texas A&M University
Thomas Onyango

Thomas Onyango is a graduate student at Texas A&M University. Onyango graduated from the University of North Texas in 2018 with a B.S. in physics minors in both engineering technology and mathematics. His undergraduate thesis focused on possible entropy production from quantum mechanical measurements that would not be represented by thermodynamics. Onyango began studying Texas A&M during an REU for the Cyclotron Institute with Dr. Rapp in 2017 and began working in 2018. In his work with Dr. Rapp, Onyango assisted him with the parameterization of the rho meson spectral function in hot, dense matter. Currently under Dr. Rapp, Onyango is using Dr. Bonasera's transport codes to analyze Ca40-Ca40 collisions to analyze the evolution of fireballs over time and space.

Bryan Orabutt, Washington University in St. Louis

Bryan Orabutt

Craig Reingold, University of Notre Dame

Craig Reingold

Craig is a graduate fellow at the University of Notre Dame, under the advisement of Prof. Anna Simon. He received his undergraduate degree at Rutgers University, where he performed research with neutron spectroscopy. His current research interests revolve around indirect measurements of reaction cross sections relevant to nuclear astrophysics. The topic of his thesis is using particle-γ coincidence measurements to study neutron capture reactions indirectly.

Dustin Scriven, Texas A&M University

Dustin Scriven

Dustin Scriven is a graduate student at Texas A&M University who works under Dr. Greg Christian at the TAMU Cyclotron Institute. In collaboration with others, he and his colleagues are working on the development of a highly segmented fast neutron detector. They hope to use this detector to investigate nuclear structure and processes for neutron and multi-neutron emission from nuclei. Dustin performs simulations for the detector and is also involved in prototyping. He is also interested in the deep relationship between nuclear physics and astrophysics. You can download a poster of his research here.

Maxwell Sorensen, Texas A&M University

Maxwell Sorenson

Maxwell Sorensen is a chemistry graduate student at Texas A&M University, working in Dr. Sherry Yennello’s group.  He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2018. His undergraduate research was with Demetrios Sarantites on lifetime measurements of heavy fission fragments using the doppler shift attenuation method.  His research focus is on the measurement of the photon strength function of 60Fe using 59Fe (d,pγ) 60Fe as the probe. Other research interest is the nuclear caloric curve probed using quasi projectiles produced in heavy ion collisions. You can download a poster on Sorensen's research.

Eli Temanson, Florida State University

Eli Temanson

Eli Temanson is a graduate student working with Ingo Wiedenhöver at Florida State University's John D. Fox Superconducting Linear Accelerator Laboratory. His research includes the upgrade development of ResoNeut, an array of low energy neutron detectors for astrophysically relevant reactions in inverse kinematics.