Salvatore Rappoccio

Salvatore Rappoccio is a Professor in the Department of Physics at the University at Buffalo, part of the College of Arts and Sciences. His research focuses on high-energy particle physics experiments, particularly within the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). He explores solutions to the hierarchy problem, investigates boosted jets and top quark physics, and examines quantum chromodynamics (QCD) through jet substructure analysis.

Education:

• BS in Physics, Boston University (2000)
• PhD in Physics, Harvard University (2005)
• Postdoctoral Research at Johns Hopkins University (2007–2012)

Research Interests: Dr. Rappoccio’s work addresses the mass discrepancy between the Higgs boson and Planck scale, leveraging LHC collisions (up to 13 TeV) to study particles like the Higgs, top quark, and W/Z bosons. He specializes in boosted hadronic particles, jet substructure, and QCD dynamics within collider environments, particularly focusing on novel physics beyond the Standard Model.

Awards:

• CMS LHC Physics Center Distinguished Researcher Award (2015)
• European Physical Society High Energy and Particle Physics Prize (2013) – Recognizing the Higgs boson discovery

Research & Grants: His work involves analyzing proton-proton collision data to search for new physics phenomena, including heavy resonances, vector-like quarks, and top quark partners. He contributes to CMS detector development, particularly silicon pixel tracking systems.

Labs/Teams: Active in the CMS Collaboration, focusing on jet physics and LHC-based experiments.