Who we are

Collaborating University Institutions

University of Texas at Arlington

UTA is one-half of the spiritual home of the Q-Pix consortium with PI’s Dave Nygren (co-originator of the Q-Pix concepts and chief trouble maker) and Jonathan Asaadi (field marshal in charge of wrangling). The UTA team consists of two post-docs (Austin McDonald and Sajib Barman) along with a team of graduate and undergraduate students working on various simulations and test-stands associated with the Q-Pix project.

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania group is lead by PI’s Christopher Mauger, Mitch Newcomer, and Rick Van Berg. With years of expertise in circuit and ASIC design as well as liquid argon TPC’s, the team at Penn is responsible for the design of the Q-Pix front-end. Van Berg founded Penn's Instrumentation group and currently serves as a consultant and advisor. Newcomer is the current leader of the instrumentation group and serves as the technical lead on the Q-Pix front-end. Mauger brings extensive experience in liquid argon and has led the CAPTAIN collaboration which most recently deployed a liquid argon TPC in a neutron beam. The Penn team consists of the instrumentation staff () and a number of electrical engineering masters students who contribute to the design and testing of the Q-Pix chip.

University of Hawaii

The Hawaii team will be led by PI’s Gary Varner and Kurtis Nishimura. Varner and Nishimura cooperatively manage the UH Instrumentation Development Laboratory (ID-Lab), which specializes in developing electronics circuits and systems in support of experimental high energy physics and astrophysics. Varner leads the effort on developing a low-drift, high precision, on-chip clock and clock distribution/interface within the QPix consortium. Nishimura leads the effort on designing the inter-chip communication scheme. The Hawaii team also consists of three post-docs (Vasily Shebalin, Shabab Kohani, and Gang Liu )

Wellesley College

PI James Battat and his research team at Wellesley College contribute to the design and testing of Q-Pix prototypes. Battat has developed detectors to study low-energy and rare interactions for the past 15 years, including the use of time projection chambers for dark matter detection with directional sensitivity. His group typically consists of ~5 undergraduate researchers who are eager to contribute to the front lines of particle physics research. Wellesley will develop test stands to characterize the Q-PIx ASIC performance, and also contribute to the development of the back-end data acquisition system.

University of Manchester

The Manchester team will be led by PI Roxanne Guenette who brings many years of experience in LArTPCs as well as critical leadership experience and physics acumen to the consortium. Manchester is responsible for the physics simulation efforts exploring the range of capabilities and physics opportunities made possible by the unambigious 3D readout of Q-Pix and what new channels may be open through an integrated charge and light device. The Manchester group will also participate in the small and mid-scale testing of the Q-Pix chips through the development of dedicated LArTPC teststands. The Manchester team consists of post-doc (Johnny Ho) and graduate students (Shion Kubota)

Texas A&M University

The Texas A&M team will be led by PI David Toback. Toback has more than 25 years of experience in experimental particle physics and will lead the technical implementation of the simulations and addressing the computing needs of the consortium. TAMU’s team consists of Dr. Mike Kelsey (Research Scientist) and David Elofson (Graduate Student). Kelsey has decades of simulations experience with Geant4, and is currently the lead developer for all Geant4 simulations for CDMS, including being the primary developer for the Geant4 Condensed Matter Physics (G4CMP) modules. Additional support from the Mitchell Institute at TAMU is also available to support activities of the consortium members

Collaborating National Lab Partners

Argonne National Labs

The Argonne team is led by Karen Byrum and Zelimir Djurcic and includes researchers Steve Magill, Bob Wagner, Steve Kuhlmann, Alex Martinson (from ANL's material science division), Corey Adams (from ANL's computing division) as well as engineering support from Victor Guarino. Argonne's resources and expertise spans many areas of physics and provides critical support for the Q-Pix consortium in the form of detector engineering, expertise and facilities for novel photo-conductor materials, world class computing facility, and experience in light detection in LArTPCs.

Fermi National Labs

The Fermilab team is led by Gary Drake and Paul Rubinov from Fermilab's ASIC design group and includes researchers Elena Gramellini and Marco Del Tutto, both from Fermilab's neutrino division. As the host lab for DUNE, Fermilab's engagement in the Q-Pix technology is a natural fit. The Fermilab ASIC team aims to engage in the development and design of the Q-Pix ASIC and brings world leading experience in designing cold-electronics. Engagement with Fermilab's neutrino division offers opportunities to utilize Fermilab's leading LArTPC testing facilities and engage the broader physics interests afforded with a pixel based readout.

Oak Ridge National Labs

The Oak Ridge team is led by Marcel Demartaeu and includes Mike Febbraro. Oak Ridge offers three unique inputs into the Q-Pix consortium via their world leading high performance computing (already utilized by the consortium), complimentary expertise in material science and solid state detectors, and a unique neutrino source for potentially testing the Q-Pix technology. The Oak Ridge group will continue to engage with the Q-Pix consortium offering access to high performance computing and collaboration on new photodetction techniques as well as explore new channels for testing of large scale prototypes.

Lawrence Berkeley National Labs

The other half of the spiritual home of Q-Pix, LBNL is a pioneering lab in innovative pixel technologies with Yuan Mei (co-originator of the Q-Pix concepts) and Dan Dwyer (pioneer of the LArPix readout). With the significant synergy between the work being done for the DUNE near detector (ala LArPix) and the Q-Pix project, LBNL plays a critical advisory/collaborative role in the development of the Q-Pix scheme.

SLAC National Labs

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