External Grants

I have been externally funded by the U.S. Department of Energy since 2012.

• 2019:
  • DE-SC0010129: Grant awarded by Department of Energy Office of Science, Office of High-Energy Physics: Research in High-Energy Physics at Southern Methodist University. Awarded for the period 2019-2022. Co-Principle Investigators: Allison Deiana, Steve Sekula, and Ryszard Stroynowski.
  • US-ATLAS ATC Award (2019-2020) for ATLAS ITk Upgrade work at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Co-Principle Investigators: Steve Sekula and Peilong Wang. $15,618.00
  • US-ATLAS Summer Undergraduate Program for Exceptional Researchers (SUPER) Award for Summer 2019. Co-Principle Investigators: Steve Sekula and Jared Burleson. $2,060.00
• 2016:
  • Grant awarded by Department of Energy Office of Science, Office of High-Energy Physics, under DE-FOA-0001358: Research in High-Energy Physics at Southern Methodist University for period 2016-2019. Co-Principle Investigators: Robert Kehoe, Steve Sekula, Ryszard Stroynowski, Jingbo Ye
• 2013:
  • Grant awarded by Department of Energy Office of Science, Office of High-Energy Physics, under DE-FOA-0000733 for 2013-2016. Co-Principle Investigators: Robert Kehoe, Steve Sekula, Ryszard Stroynowski, Jingbo Ye
  • US-Israel Bi-National Science Foundation Award for 2013-2018. Co-Principle Investigators: Eilam Gross (Weizmann Institute of Science) and Steve Sekula
• 2012:
  • Grant awarded by Department of Energy Office of Science, Office of High-Energy Physics, under DE-FOA-0000573. Awarded for period May 1, 2012 – March 31, 2013. Principle Investigator: Steve Sekula

External Awards

• 2012:
  • Texas Section of the American Physical Society Robert S. Hyer Award for Undergraduate Research (Co-Recipients: Steve Sekula and Landon Banister)

Internal Grants

• 2018:
  • SMU University Research Council (URC) Travel Grant to support travel to the CERN Laboratory for my activities as ATLAS b-jet trigger co-convener.
• 2017:
  • SMU Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Award
• 2013:
  • Awarded funds by SMU to support development of “Ways of Knowing” course proposal entitled, “Introduction to the Scientific Method – Critical and Creative Thinking”
• 2009:
  • SMU President’s Partners Grant for establishment of “Mustang Physics” Podcast

Internal Awards

• 2020:
  • SMU Honoring Our Professors’ Excellent (HOPE) Award: nominated independently by two students
• 2017:
  • SMU Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Award (SMU’s highest teaching award)
• 2016
  • SMU 2016 HOPE (Honoring Our Professors’ Excellence) Professor of the Year
• 2015
  • SMU Rotunda Outstanding Professor Award
  • Chi Omega Professor of the Month Award, Iota Alpha Chapter of the Chi Omega Sorority
• 2012:
  • Provost’s Golden Mustang Award (” . . . given each year to a junior, tenure-track faculty member, whose teaching is consistently excellent; whose courses reflect thoughtful curricular development; and whose scholarship makes a meaningful contribution to the discipline and to student learning.”)

Student Grants and Awards

Many students who have worked with me received external and internal grants and awards to support their work with me. These are listed below.

External Grants and Awards

• 2019:
  • Chris Milke (Ph.D. Student) was awarded a 2019-2020 U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Research Fellowship.
•  2017:
  • Matthew Feickert (Ph.D. Student) was awarded a 2017 DIANA-HEP Foundation Fellowship. This provided 3 months external support for his travel to CERN to work on computational problems in high-energy physics, specifically the implementation of HistFactory in Python atop a framework like TensorFlow.
• 2016:
  • Nicole Hartman (undergraduate researcher) was awarded a 2016 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
• 2014:
  • Nicole Hartman (undergraduate researcher) was awarded a Barry Goldwater Scholarship.
• 2013:
  • Matthew Rispoli (undergraduate researcher) was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
• 2011
  • Matthew Rispoli (undergraduate researcher) – Honorable Mention for the Barry Goldwater Scholarship

Internal Grants and Awards

• 2019:
  • Jared Burleson – SMU Hamilton Research Scholarship (undergraduate research support)
• 2018:
  • Rebecca Moore – SMU Hamilton Research Scholarship (undergraduate research support) and SMU Engaged Learning Fellowship
• 2016:
  • Tia Szesniak – SMU Hamilton Research Scholarship (undergraduate research support)
• 2015:
  • Nicole Hartman – SMU Hamilton Research Scholarship (undergraduate research support)
• 2014:
  • Matthew Bruemmer – SMU Hamilton Research Scholarship (undergraduate research support) and Engaged Learning Fellowship
• 2013:
  • Nicole Hartman – SMU Hamilton Research Scholarship (undergraduate research support)
• 2011:
  • Garrett Bockman – SMU Hamilton Research Scholarship (undergraduate research support)
• 2010:
  • Landon Banister – SMU Hamilton Research Scholarship (undergraduate research support)