Pushpa Bhat
Distinguished Scientist
Telephone: (630) 840-8302 E-mail: pushpa@fnal.gov Office Location: WH10E
Areas of Focus: Machine Learning, Higgs Physics, BSM, Future Colliders
Biography
My research career has spanned physics from keV energies to the energy frontier. I received my Ph.D. from Bangalore University, India. Before joining Fermilab in 1989, I had a brief stint as a scientific officer at the Eindhoven University Cyclotron Lab in the Netherlands, and was a postdoctoral fellow in the high energy physics group at Duke University. At Fermilab, I have worked on fixed target as well as two collider experiments (E-735 at C0 and the D0 experiment), and have led several groups and projects including the Run II Luminosity and Reliability upgrades of the Tevatron accelerator complex.
I was closely involved in the discovery of the top quark and precision measurement of its mass, and searches for new particles, while bringing a paradigm shift in data analyses at the Tevatron with the use of multivariate analysis methods, particularly machine learning. I joined CMS in 2006, spent 2.5 years (2010-12) at CERN, and contributed to CMS commissioning and operations, experiment-machine interface, and the Higgs boson discovery.
My current research interests and activities include the study of the Higgs boson, searches for new physics, machine learning, and leading Fermilab’s future colliders group (FCG).
I am also active in professional scientific societies and outreach to the broader science community, the public, policy makers and decision leaders. I recently served on the Board of directors of the American Physical Society (APS), and currently serve on the Council of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and as the Secretary for the International Committee on Future Accelerators (ICFA).
Selected Publications:
P.C. Bhat and G. N. Taylor, “Particle Physics at Accelerators in the United States and Asia,” Nature Physics, VOL 16, April 2020, p380–385. https://rdcu.be/b3qqN
P.C. Bhat, et al., “Optimizing event selection with the random grid search,” Computer Physics Communications, 228, 245-257 (2018).
P.C. Bhat, “Multivariate Analysis Methods in Particle Physics,” Annu. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 61:281-309 (2011).
P.C. Bhat, “New Directions in Data Analysis in High Energy Physics,” APS Division of Particles & Fields Meeting, Columbus, OH, August 9-12, 2000, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A, 16, Suppl. 01C, 1122 (2001).
P.C. Bhat, et al., “Strategy for discovering a low-mass Higgs Boson at the Fermilab Tevatron,” Phys. Rev. D 62, 074022 (2000).
P.C. Bhat, H.B. Prosper, S.S. Snyder, “Top Quark Physics at the Tevatron,” Int. J. of Mod. Phys. 13: 5113-5218 (1998).