Sarah Demers

Last updated
Sarah Demers
Other namesSarah Marie Demers Konezny
Alma mater Harvard University
University of Rochester
Scientific career
Institutions Roberts Wesleyan University
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
CERN
Yale University
Thesis A measurement of BR(t -->[tau nuq)] (2004)
Doctoral advisor Kevin McFarland

Sarah Demers is an American experimental particle physicist, Professor of Physics, and Chair of the Department of Physics at Yale University. [1] Her research focuses on using charged leptons, particularly tau leptons and muons, to search for physics beyond the Standard Model. She is a member of the ATLAS collaboration at CERN's Large Hadron Collider and the Mu2e experiment at Fermilab. [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Demers graduated from Phillips Andover Academy in 1994. [3] Demers has an A.B. in Physics from Harvard University (1999). [4] In 2001 she received an M.A. from the University of Rochester, [5] and in 2005 she earned her Ph.D. from the University of Rochester. [6] At Rochester, her doctoral advisor was Kevin McFarland. [7]

After her doctorate, Demers taught for two years as an assistant professor at Roberts Wesleyan University. [8] She then held a postdoctoral position at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, during which time she was based at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. [8] Demers joined the Yale faculty in 2009. [9]


Research

Demers is a particle physicist. As an undergraduate she worked in the laboratory of Melissa Franklin [4] and made sheets of gold-coated Mylar into detectors for tracking elemental particles. [10] Her work examines charged particles to find new methods in physics beyond the accepted Standard Model. [11] Demers was part of the team who discovered the Higgs boson, [12] and her work is conducted at the Large Hadron Collider. [13]

At Yale Wright Laboratory, Demers's group has responsibilities in the ATLAS collaboration for data quality and detector upgrades, including construction of elements of the ATLAS tracker upgrade for the High-Luminosity LHC. [2] On the Mu2e experiment, her group is engaged in trigger system development, and she serves on the Mu2e publications board. [2]

Physics and Dance

Demers collaborates with Emily Coates, director of the Yale Dance Studies Curriculum, on interdisciplinary work connecting physics and dance. They co-teach a course on the Physics of Dance at Yale [14] and co-authored Physics and Dance (Yale University Press, 2019), which was reviewed in Nature and Physics Today . Demers appeared in Coates's 2015 performance Incarnations. [15]

Selected publications

Awards and honors

In 2011 Demers received an early career award from the United States' Department of Energy. [17]

Demers has also received a US ATLAS Fellowship [8] and the Yale Provost Teaching Award. [18]

She was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2023, "for important contributions to tau lepton triggering and identification and using the tau signature in the study of Higgs production and decay, and for important leadership both within the ATLAS collaboration and the broader physics community". [19]

References

  1. "Sarah Demers appointed chair of the Yale Department of Physics". Yale Department of Physics. Retrieved 2026-02-22.
  2. 1 2 3 "Sarah Demers". Yale Wright Laboratory. Retrieved 2026-02-22.
  3. "Sarah Marie Demers". News and Citizen – Morrisville, Vermont. August 4, 1994.
  4. 1 2 "Sarah Demers: Z Bosons Are Real". The Story Collider. May 5, 2017. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  5. "Demers CV | Demers Group @ Yale". demerslab.yale.edu. Retrieved 2023-03-05.
  6. "A measurement of BR(t -->[tau nu]q) | WorldCat.org". www.worldcat.org. Retrieved 2023-03-05.
  7. Physics, American Institute of (2022-03-21). "Sarah Demers". www.aip.org. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
  8. 1 2 3 "Sarah Demers". Yale Explores. Retrieved 2026-02-22.
  9. "Sarah Demers | Yale Explores". yaleexplores.yale.edu. Retrieved 2023-03-05.
  10. Scoles, Sarah (May 31, 2016). "What Does Beauty Have To Do with Physics?". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  11. Hansen, Nathan (28 April 2017). "A Universe of Knowledge". The La Crosse Tribune. pp.  , .
  12. "Yale physicists on tap to hold discussion over beer". New Haven Register; New Haven, Conn. [New Haven, Conn]. October 16, 2014. pp. A7.
  13. "Large Hadron Collider starts 3rd run to unravel more mysteries about the Universe". All Things Considered; Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C.: NPR. July 5, 2022.
  14. Burke, Siobhan; Seibert, Brian (2017-03-21). "Reviews: Colliding Particles, a Grim Duet and Channeling Martha Graham". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331.
  15. Jowitt, Deborah (2015-03-23). "Review: Emily Coates and Yve Laris Cohen, a Dialogue of Choreographers". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331.
  16. Reviews for Physics and Dance
  17. Lang, Michelle (May 17, 2011). "DOE awards Early Career Awards to 11 New England researchers". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  18. "Sarah Demers". The Helix Center. Retrieved 2026-02-22.
  19. "2023 Fellows". APS Fellow Archive. American Physical Society. Retrieved 2023-10-19.