Mike Saelim

Note: Since I have left academia, this is no longer being updated.




Michael Saelim
PhD in theoretical physics, Cornell Theoretical Particle Physics Group
Advisor: Maxim Perelstein
Other thesis committee members: Yuval Grossman and Jim Alexander

Education

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
   PhD in physics, Jun 2014
   MS in physics, Sep 2012

Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
   BS in physics (with high honor), May 2008
   BS in mathematics (with high honor), May 2008
   Honors College, Lyman Briggs College

Research interests

Particle phenomenology and collider physics, with an emphasis on searches for beyond-the-Standard-Model physics at the TeV scale and new tools and techniques such as jet substructure and Markov chain Monte Carlo.

See my research page for descriptions of what I've been working on, particle physics and otherwise.

Publications

• RPV SUSY with Same-Sign Dileptons at LHC-14
         (with M. Perelstein), contributed to Snowmass Community Summer Study 2013, arXiv:1309.7707 [hep-ph].
• The Same-Sign Dilepton Signature of RPV/MFV SUSY
         (with J. Berger, M. Perelstein, and P. Tanedo), JHEP04(2013)077, arXiv:1302.2146 [hep-ph].
• SUSY-Yukawa Sum Rule at the LHC and the ILC
        (with M. Perelstein), LCWS11 Proceedings, arXiv:1201.5839 [hep-ph].
• Boosted Tops from Gluino Decays
        (with J. Berger, M. Perelstein, and A. Spray), arXiv:1111.6594 [hep-ph].
• Potential model calculations and predictions for cs̅ quarkonia
         (with S. Radford and W. Repko), Phys. Rev. D80 034012 (2009), arXiv:0903.0551.
• Reduced neutron spectroscopic factors when using potential geometries constrained by Hartree-Fock calculations
         (with J. Lee, et al.), Phys. Rev. C73 044608 (2006), arXiv:nucl-ex/0511023.

Talks

• New Tools in the Search for Supersymmetry
         Dissertation Defense (Jun 2014).
  
• The Same-Sign Dilepton Signature of RPV/MFV SUSY
         Cornell CMS Mini-Workshop (May 2013).
         Pheno 2013 Symposium (May 2013).
         Brookhaven Forum 2013 (May 2013).
• Boosted Tops from Gluino Decays
         LEPP Particle Theory Seminar, Cornell (May 2012).
• Boosted Tops from Gluino Decays
         Pheno 2012 Symposium (May 2012).
• Boosting Discovery of Gluino Decays
         (with J. Berger), Cornell CMS Mini-Workshop (Jan 2012).
• Bayes to the Rescue: Markov Chain Monte Carlo in the pMSSM
         TASI 2011 student talk (Jun 2011).

Cornell BSM Journal Club talks
This is a weekly series of informal blackboard talks amongst the Cornell particle theory grad students and postdocs.

• Jets Without Jets (Dec 2013)
         Discussion of the paper by D. Bertolini, T. Chan, and J. Thaler, arXiv:1310.7584 [hep-ph].
• 5 minute "Gong Show" talk on accidental substructure (Apr 2013)
         Accidental substructure, and recent work in progress.
• Practical Statistics for Practical Phenomenologists (Oct 2012)
         Understanding and computing exclusion limits and reach plots, for theorists.
• Personal (Jet) Grooming (Apr 2012)
         Jet grooming techniques and boosted object tagging.
• Winter Camp 2012: Collider Monte Carlo (Jan 2012)
         (with P. Tanedo, et al.) Multi-day workshop on using MadGraph/MadEvent 5, Pythia 8, and FastJet.
• Non-relativistic EFT of DM Direct Detection (Feb 2011)
         Discussion of the paper by J. Fan, M. Reece, and L.-T. Wang, arXiv:1008.1591 [hep-ph].

Conferences/workshops/summer schools attended

• Cornell CMS Mini-Workshop; Cornell University, 13-14 May 2013
• Phenomenology 2013 Symposium (Pheno 2013); University of Pittsburgh, 6-8 May 2013
• Brookhaven Forum 2013; Brookhaven National Laboratory, 1-3 May 2013
• Higgs Physics After Discovery; Princeton Center for Theoretical Science, 25-26 Apr 2013
• Hadron Collider Physics Summer School 2012; Fermilab, 6-17 Aug 2012
• Phenomenology 2012 Symposium (Pheno 2012); University of Pittsburgh, 7-9 May 2012
• Hot Topics at Colliders: Exploring Hints for New Physics; Princeton Center for Theoretical Science, 27-29 Apr 2012
• MC4BSM-2012: Monte Carlo Tools for Physics Beyond the Standard Model; Cornell University, 22-24 Mar 2012
• Cornell CMS Mini-Workshop; Cornell University, 19-20 Jan 2012
• PreSUSY 2011 Summer School; University of Chicago, 24-26 Aug 2011
• TASI 2011; University of Colorado Boulder, 6 Jun-1 Jul 2011

Technical experience (as of Summer 2014)

• Programming/scripting with C++, Python, Java, Perl, FORTRAN, Visual Basic, and bash
• Version control with Git
• Use of Mathematica, MATLAB, ROOT
• Use of particle physics software packages MadGraph 5, PYTHIA 8, FastJet 3, Delphes 3, ATHENA (software framework for the ATLAS experiment), CMSSW (software framework for the CMS experiment)

Honors and awards

• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship honorable mention, 2008 and 2009
• Thomas H. Osgood Undergraduate Physics Award, MSU Department of Physics and Astronomy, 2008
• L.C. Plant Award, MSU Department of Mathematics, 2007
• Lawrence W. Hantel Endowed Fellowship, MSU Department of Physics and Astronomy, 2006-2008
• Professorial Assistantship, MSU Honors College, 2004-2006

Teaching

See my teaching page for descriptions of the classes I have taught.

Other activities

• Field representative for Physics, Cornell Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, 2012-2014
• Cornell Graduate School Academic Integrity Hearing Board, 2012-2014
• Website co-chair, Expanding Your Horizons 2010
• Adopt-a-Physicist, 2009
• Volunteer, Expanding Your Horizons 2009
• President, MSU Society of Physics Students, 2007-2008