Lesya Shchutska

Lesya Shchutska is a Tenure Track Assistant Professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in the School of Basic Sciences, Institute of Physics, specifically in the High Energy Physics Laboratory LS (LPHE-LS). She also holds a position in the Physics Teaching unit (SPH-ENS) at EPFL. Her research focuses on testing the boundaries of the Standard Model of particle physics and searching for new phenomena to explain fundamental puzzles such as dark matter, matter-antimatter asymmetry, and neutrino masses.

Dr. Shchutska received her PhD in High Energy Physics from EPFL (2008-2012), following an MSc (2006-2008) and BSc (2002-2006) in General and Applied Physics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Prior to joining EPFL as faculty, she was an Assistant Professor at ETH Zürich (2018-2019) and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Florida (2012-2017).

Her research primarily utilizes data from the LHCb detector at CERN, with additional work on the CMS experiment through the ERC Starting grant "MajorNet" (ID 758316). She is actively involved in R&D for next-generation detectors including SND@LHC and SHiP, which aim to explore physics beyond the Standard Model through complementary experimental approaches. Her work spans precision measurements of Standard Model processes, searches for new particles, and development of novel detection techniques for rare phenomena.

Dr. Shchutska's recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on lepton universality tests, heavy neutral lepton searches, and forward physics at the LHC. Her work bridges theoretical predictions with experimental measurements, particularly in the areas of B physics, neutrino physics, and searches for long-lived particles that could constitute dark matter or explain other Standard Model puzzles.

She has received numerous prestigious awards including:

• Swiss Science Prize Latsis (2023) for "paving the way to the discovery of new particles"
• Young Experimental Physicist Prize from the European Physical Society (2019)
• Young Experimental Physicist Prize from the High Energy and Particle Physics Division of the EPS (2019)
• LPC Distinguished Researcher fellowship (2016)
• CHIPP Prize for the best PhD student in particle physics (2011)

Dr. Shchutska supervises multiple PhD students and has secured significant research funding including the ERC Starting grant "MajorNet." She is a key member of several major international collaborations including LHCb (2019-present), SND@LHC (2020-present), SHiP (2014-present), and previously CMS (2012-2019).

Her laboratory work focuses on the High Energy Physics Laboratory at EPFL, where she leads research groups working on data analysis from LHC experiments and R&D for future detectors. Her team contributes significantly to the development of the SND@LHC detector and research toward the SHiP experiment at CERN's future beam-dump facility.