Christoph M. E. Paus

Christoph M. E. Paus is a Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he has held roles since 1999, advancing to tenure in 2006. He co-led the CMS Experiment team at CERN during the historic 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson. His research focuses on particle physics experiments, including Higgs boson properties and dark matter detection. He has held leadership roles in computing operations and detector projects at CMS and the Fermilab CDF experiment. Paus has received multiple teaching awards, including the Buechner Award, and pioneered innovative educational programs linking MIT with CERN via videoconferencing.

Education:

• Rheinisch Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH), Aachen: Pre-Diploma in Mechanical Engineering (1989), Physics (1990), Mathematics (1990), Diploma in Mechanical Engineering (1992), PhD in Physics (1996)
• CERN Fellowship (1997)

Research Interests:

• Exploration of fundamental questions in particle physics, including mass generation via the Higgs mechanism and dark matter composition
• Development of experimental techniques for collider-based particle detection
• Analysis of missing energy signatures in CMS detector data

Awards & Grants:

• APS Fellow (2011) for contributions to CDF experiment
• J-WEL grant for experimental physics education (2017)
• Borchers Medal for PhD thesis (1996)

Labs & Teams:

• Principal Investigator of CMS Tier-2 Computing Center at MIT
• Member of Particle Physics Collaboration (PPC) and Fermilab teams