Alan Watson

Alan Watson is a Professor and Reader in Particle Physics at the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham. He leads the Birmingham teams on the DUNE experiment at Fermilab and is the UK project leader for the ATLAS experiment's first-level calorimeter trigger (L1Calo) at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). His career spans over three decades, with prior leadership roles in the Birmingham ATLAS team (2011–2017) and contributions to the OPAL and BaBar experiments.

Education:

• PhD in Experimental Particle Physics, Imperial College, 1989
• BA (Hons) in Physics, Oxford University, 1985

Research Focus:

• New Physics Searches, including top and heavy flavour physics
• Neutrino physics and data acquisition systems for DUNE
• LHC trigger design (L1Calo) and precision electroweak measurements

His work emphasizes experimental particle physics, detector innovation, and high-luminosity collider operations.

Advising & Leadership:

• Supervised over 15 PhD students across OPAL, BaBar, and ATLAS
• Former Head of Year for first/ fourth-year undergraduates and committee member for educational policies

Labs/Teams:

• Core member of the ATLAS and DUNE collaborations
• Leader of Birmingham's DUNE data-acquisition team and L1Calo project