Benjamin Hooberman

Benjamin Hooberman is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Department of Physics and an Affiliate Professor at the Illinois Center for Advanced Studies of the Universe (ICASU). As an experimental high energy particle physicist, he focuses on dark matter, supersymmetry, and machine learning applications in collider physics, with a 14-year leadership role in the ATLAS collaboration. His work includes pioneering cosmic ray muon imaging techniques for battery metal detection and leading international teams in Higgs boson discovery (2013 Nobel Prize-related) and ATLAS trigger system upgrades. He received the DOE Early Career Research Award (2017) and CMS Fellowship (2013).

Research Interests

• High energy particle physics at the Large Hadron Collider
• Supersymmetry and dark matter exploration
• Machine learning for particle identification
• Cosmic ray muon imaging (muography) for resource detection
• Phase 2 ATLAS trigger system development

Scientific Awards

• DOE Early Career Research Award (2017)
• CMS Fellowship Award (2013)
• University of Illinois Center for Advanced Study Associate (2022)

Advising: Accepting PhD students for ATLAS research and muon imaging projects through Illinois' centralized physics PhD program. Application deadline: January 15, 2025.