Juan Fuster. Image: IFIC
The Spanish particle physicist Juan Fuster Verdú, professor at the Instituto de Fisica Corpuscular (IFIC) in Valencia, has received a Humboldt Research Award. He will use the award to intensify his collaboration with researchers at DESY and other institutes Germany. Every year, the Humboldt Foundation selects renowned researchers from a broad variety of disciplines for this prestigious award, which is supposed to recognise the awardees’ academic achievements and foster collaboration with colleagues in Germany.
Over a period of five years that starts in spring 2019 with a scientific symposium, Juan Fuster will spend a total of one year in Germany, working with his German colleagues in the investigation of the top quark production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN and in the scenarios of future linear colliders. The top quark’s mass is a fundamental parameter of the Standard Model pf particle physics , which describes the elementary particles and their interactions. The precision of the top quark mass plays a particularly prominent role in the ultimate test of the Standard Model, since its precise value has significant impact on the Higgs boson potential and, ultimately, on the stability of the Universe.
“Any quantitative statement about the value of the top quark mass demands a careful reference to the mass scheme used. Most current experimental measurements, though very precise, have a significant theoretical uncertainty .A top quark mass well defined by theory can be determined using novel, alternative methods. We have to look into new observables in close collaboration with theorists,“ Fuster says.
Juan Fuster was born in 1960 in Alcoi (Spain). He completed his PhD in the CELLO experiment at DESY and later moved to CERN, where he worked on measurements of quark masses and couplings of the Standard Model at the DELPHI experiment. In 1996 Fuster went to IFIC to lead a group which contributed to the construction of the ATLAS silicon tracker. Currently, he works on top quark physics at the LHC and future linear colliders. Among several other responsibilities he has been director of IFIC from 2003 to 2007 and managed the Spanish National Program for Particle Physics from 2007 to 2010.
Juan Fuster is an international expert on precision measurements of the Standard Model parameters and is well known for his innovative methods both in physics analysis and in the development of new particle detectors. He is author of several important physics textbooks results.During his stay in Germany, Juan Fuster will work with his experimental and theory colleagues at DESY, the University of Hamburg, Humboldt University of Berlin and the University of Bonn.
“Both our groups are developing alternative methods to measure the top quark mass. Exchanging our ideas and by combining our results, we expect an unprecedented precision in this fundamental parameter,” says DESY scientist Katerina Lipka from the CMS experiment, who will host Fuster during his stay at DESY. He is happy to return to Hamburg: “I’ve always loved the city. It was a very special period in my life with lots of pleasant memories. I look forward to spending time with my fellow researchers there.”
