Group

Our group members, together with other collaborators and colleagues, at the NNPDF Collaboration meeting in Gargnano, September 2021.

Current Members (updated July 2022)

Juan Rojo (j.rojo@vu.nl) is Professor of Theoretical Physics (Hoogleraar Theoretische Natuurkunde) and staff member of the Theory group at Nikhef, the Dutch Institute for Subatomic Physics. Following a PhD in Barcelona and postdoctoral positions in Paris, Milan, and at CERN, he joined the University of Oxford in 2014 with a junior faculty position, before moving to Amsterdam in 2016 first as Assistant Professor and then from 2019 as Associate Professor. More details about Juan can be found here.

A short presentation of Juan’s research interests.
from left to right, current group members Tanjona Rabemananjara, Tommaso Giani, Jaco ter Hoeve, and Giacomo Magni.

Tanjona Rabemananjara (postdoc) joined the group in November 2021, after her PhD graduation in Milan where he worked on perturbative resummations in QCD and machine learning for particle physics. Tanjona is supported by an Accelerating Scientific Discoveries (ASDI2021) project of the Netherlands eScience Center , and also collaborates with software engineers based there with the goal of assembling an integrated global analysis of non-perturbative QCD.

Tommaso Giani (postdoc) joined the group in March 2021 first as PhD candidate, working on global fits of nuclear PDFs, and then he continued in October 2021 as postdoc. Tommaso’s research is funded by an ENW-KLEIN-2 project together with Prof. Wouter Verkerke of the Nikhef ATLAS group, and aims to develop novel approaches for SMEFT interpretations of LHC data with enhanced sensitivity.

Jaco ter Hoeve (PhD candidate) carried out his MSc project in our group in 2019/2020 and then continued as PhD candidate from October 2020. Jaco’s research is also funded by an ENW-KLEIN-2 project together with Prof. Wouter Verkerke of the Nikhef ATLAS group, and aims to improve global analysis of the SMEFT by means of machine learning tools and novel statistical approaches.

Giacomo Magni (PhD candidate) joined the group first as Erasmus exchange MSc student in February 2020 and then from October 2020 continued as PhD candidate. Giacomo’s research focuses on the one hand precision determination of the quark and gluon substructure of the proton within the NNPDF Collaboration and on the other hand on global analyses of the SMEFT, including the connection with UV complete models

Alumni (PhD candidates and postdocs)

From left to right, with former group members Valerio Bertone, Marco Bonvini, Luca Rottoli, and Nathan Hartland at the DIS2016 conference in Hamburg, April 2016.

(2018-2021) Jake Ethier (postdoc). Jake obtained his PhD in Jefferson Lab in 2018, and then joined our group at Nikhef / VU Amsterdam as a postdoc in 2018. His research interests include QCD phenomenology, proton spin and nuclear structure, and hadronization. In 2019 he was awarded the GHP Dissertation Prize. You can find here Jake’s list of publications.

(2017-2021) Rabah Abdul Khalek (PhD candidate). Rabah obtained his Master in Particle and Nuclear Physics in the University of Paris-South in 2017 and then joined our group as PhD student. His main topics of interest are the partonic structure of nucleons and nuclei and the application of machine learning techniques to particle physics.

(2015-2017 & 2018-2020) Emanuele Roberto Nocera (postdoc). Emanuele obtained his PhD at the University of Milano in 2014, followed by postdoctoral researcher positions at Genoa, Oxford, and Edinburgh. In 2017 he joined Nikhef after being awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Intra-European Fellowship by the European Commission.

(2016-2020) Emma Slade (PhD candidate). Emma joined our group in Oxford in 2016, following her MSc studies at University College London. Emma’s research interests included the partonic structure of the proton, perturbative QCD calculations, and effective field theories. She graduated in Oxford in September 2020.

(2014-2018) Luca Rottoli (PhD student). Luca joined our group in Oxford in 2014 to carry out his PhD students, following his graduation from the University of Milan. After successfully defending his PhD thesis in 2018, he moved to a postdoctoral position at the University of Milano-Biccocca jointly with UC Berkeley.

(2014-2018) Nathan Hartland (postdoc). After obtaining his PhD in the University of Edinburgh, Nathan joined the group first in Oxford and after 2016 in Amsterdam. Nathan’s current position is data science expert in a consultancy company.

(2015-2018) Valerio Bertone (postdoc). Following a PhD in Freiburg and a postdoctoral fellowship at CERN, Valerio joined the group in Oxford and then also transitioned to Amsterdam. He’s currently a postdoc at the University of Pavia in Italy.

(2014-2016) Marco Bonvini (postdoc). Marco joined our group in Oxford in 2014 following his PhD studies at the University of Genova and a postdoc at the theory group of DESY. He is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Univeristy of Rome III.