I am involved in the LDMX experiment, where the main thrust of my research is to ensure high-quality trigger decisions, especially when multiple beam electrons arrive at the target at the same time. The trigger system is tasked with reducing the high rate of incoming data (given by the beam frequency) by six orders of magnitude, to an output rate at which we can write data to disk. Once recorded to disk, data can be carefully analysed for years, but first the trigger has to make split-second decisions about what to keep. At higher beam intensity, detector signals from several processes is seen at once, and identifying interesting events to keep gets more difficult. Meanwhile, higher intensity means faster discovery. So excellent triggering is key – whatever the trigger discards is lost forever! 

To me this is a stimulating challenge. My interests as a particle physicist can (besides contributing to the theoretical paradigm shift we are all eagerly awaiting) be described as both the interplay between the hardware and algorithmic sides of instrumentation, and, us as humans as part of the instrumentation and knowledge. I have also participated in the ATLAS experiment, where among other things I improved the measurement of jets in the presence of pileup, and probed the energy frontier with jets. 

Within my realm of physics I am also interested in the epistemology of searching for the "unknown" as a process of becoming aware of what is considered known, and think of dark matter as a wonderful physics example of a minoritized majority.