Prof Deborah A. Harris - The Road to Precision in Neutrino Physics

Monday 13 Oct 2025, 11:00 → 12:00 Europe/London

516 (G.O. Jones Bulding)

https://fnal.zoom.us/j/93197574512?pwd=bGlJTHlGTnVtTFFwRnlpYnhrdm5rdz09

About the speaker: 

Deborah Harris is a Professor at York University and a Senior Scientist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab).  She received her PHD from the University of Chicago, where she worked on a rare Kaon decay experiment (E799).  She moved to neutrino physics as a postdoctoral researcher on NuTeV at the University of Rochester.  She started as scientist at Fermilab working on the MINOS neutrino oscillation experiment where she quickly realized the importance of understanding neutrino interactions in order to make the best neutrino oscillation measurements.  She was the Project Manager before becoming co-Spokesperson of the MINERvA experiment from 2010-2024.  She is currently working on neutrino interaction measurements at T2K and MINERvA and near detector prototyping for the DUNE experiment.

 

The Road to Precision in Neutrino Physics

Neutrino Oscillations are one of the precious few signatures of beyond the standard model physics. Oscillation measurements can give us new insight into what generates particle masses and what might generate the abundance of matter over antimatter that we currently enjoy. Making precision oscillation measurements is challenging due to the small mass differences among neutrinos, and their tiny probability to interact with matter . We as a field need a thorough understanding of the way neutrinos interact in nuclei to get to an oscillation probability as a function of neutrino energy. This talk will review the next steps in oscillation physics as well as a few recent neutrino interaction measurements from the MINERvA experiment that are helping to lay the foundations for future experiments.

Convener: Prof. Deborah A Harris (York U., Canada)