Ben Carlson

Ben Carlson is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Westmont College. He holds a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University (2015) and completed his postdoctoral research at the University of Pittsburgh until 2021. His research focuses on experimental high-energy physics, particularly within the ATLAS experiment at CERN, where he investigates Higgs boson decays and optimizes the ATLAS trigger system. He has secured an NSF grant (2022) to support student involvement in ATLAS research.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, 2015
• Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Pittsburgh, 2015–2021

Research Interests: Experimental particle physics, Higgs boson phenomenology, detector trigger systems, and machine learning applications in real-time data analysis. His work contributes to discovering new particles through exotic decay channels and improving collision event selection in high-luminosity environments.

Recent Research Trends: Recent publications emphasize nanosecond-scale machine learning algorithms for FPGA-based decision trees, Higgs boson decay searches in vector-boson fusion processes, and trigger system performance optimization. These studies address both core particle physics questions and technical challenges in large-scale experiments like ATLAS.

Awards:

• NSF Grant (2022)

Advising & Grants: Leverages NSF funding to involve students in ATLAS collaboration projects, fostering hands-on experience in data analysis and experimental physics. His work bridges theoretical predictions with experimental validation in high-energy settings.

Teams/Labs: Active member of the ATLAS Collaboration, contributing to detector operations and analysis workflows at the Large Hadron Collider.