Simon Henry Connell is a professor of physics at the

University of Johannesburg The University of Johannesburg, colloquially known as UJ, is a public university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant fundi ...

in South Africa. He is an engineering physicist, a Founding Member of the South African participation in the

ATLAS Experiment ATLAS is the largest general-purpose particle detector experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland. The experiment is designed to take advantage of ...

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...

, and the Chair of the African Light Source (AfLS) Foundation.

Career

Simon Henry Connell obtained his Bachelors' degree and PhD (1985 - 1989) in Physics from the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...

. He continued to work at the University of the Witwatersrand until 2008, when he moved to

. He is a professor of physics at the University of Johannesburg. He is an engineering physicist who previously worked extensively at the

European Synchrotron Radiation Facility The European Synchrotron (ESRF) is a joint research facility situated in Grenoble, France, supported by 19 countries (13 member countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switz ...

(ESRF). He is affiliated with the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment in the Department of Mechanical Engineering Science. Connell is a Founding Member of the South African participation in the

. Additionally, he served as the President of the

South African Institute of Physics South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

Research and projects

According to the South African National Research Foundation, he is highly regarded and acknowledged internationally for his accomplishments. As of June 2023, he has an

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with success indicators such as winning t ...

of 141 on

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...

. Connell has research interests in various areas including Particle Physics, Nuclear Physics, Quantum Physics, High-Performance Computing, and Applied Nuclear Physics. Furthermore, he has been involved in engineering and technical activities related to the Beyond Standard Model search at CERN, which is focused on

High Energy Physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the scale of protons and neutrons, while the stu ...

. Together with his group, he is involved in the searching for particles related to

dark matter In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...

, presenting two potential dark vector boson candidates. Their primary objective is to identify additional candidates that could lead to a groundbreaking discovery or alternatively explain these events as background processes. His research also focuses on the development of a gamma ray laser using a specially fabricated diamond

superlattice A superlattice is a periodic structure of layers of two (or more) materials. Typically, the thickness of one layer is several nanometers. It can also refer to a lower-dimensional structure such as an array of quantum dots or quantum wells. Dis ...

as a crystalline

undulator An undulator is an insertion device from high-energy physics and usually part of a larger installation, a synchrotron storage ring, or it may be a component of a free electron laser. It consists of a periodic structure of dipole magnets. These ca ...

as part of the EU-PEARL. As the leader of the Mining Positron Emission Technology (MinPET) Research Group, Connell has successfully demonstrated the ability to detect diamonds within

kimberlite Kimberlite is an igneous rock and a rare variant of peridotite. It is most commonly known as the main host matrix for diamonds. It is named after the town of Kimberley, Northern Cape, Kimberley in South Africa, where the discovery of an 83.5-Car ...

at a statistically significant level. Moreover, he has utilised high-rate, high-sensitivity detectors developed for this project to investigate fluid-flow in hydro-cyclones. Connell is also engaged in an inter-departmental collaboration to build the national case for South African Advanced High-Temperature Gas Cooled Reactors. His particular interest lies in combining

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo ( ; ; or colloquially ; , ; ) is an official administrative area of Monaco, specifically the Ward (country subdivision), ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is located. Informally, the name also refers to ...

among other methods with advanced computing solutions to model

neutrons The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , that has no electric charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. The neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932, leading to the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938, the f ...

in the

nuclear reactor core A nuclear reactor core is the portion of a nuclear reactor containing the nuclear fuel components where the nuclear reactions take place and the heat is generated. Typically, the fuel will be low-enriched uranium contained in thousands of indiv ...

African Light Source

Connell is actively involved in the African Light Source (AfLS) project as the AfLS Foundation's Chair. Connell has contributed to the development and promotion of the AfLS, advocating for the establishment of this facility in Africa. He has co-authored papers and articles discussing the importance and potential impact of the African Light Source. In addition, Simon Connell has given presentations and talks about the African Light Source project. The African Light Source is an initiative aimed at establishing Africa's first synchrotron light source, a particle accelerator that produces intense radiation used for studying the structure and behavior of matter. The project aims to bridge the gap in synchrotron light source capabilities on the continent, as Africa currently lacks such a facility. By establishing the African Light Source, African scientists would have access to a powerful tool for conducting cutting-edge research in various scientific disciplines. The project has gained momentum and support from the scientific community.

Awards and honours

Connell was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of South Africa The Royal Society of South Africa is a learned society composed of eminent South African scientists and academics. The society was granted its royal charter by King Edward VII in 1908, nearly a century after Capetonians first began to conceive of ...

in 2006, a Member of the

Academy of Science of South Africa The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) is the national science academy in South Africa. It was started in 1996, and encompasses all fields of scientific work. Its legal foundation is the ''Academy of Science of South Africa Act'', Act ...

, and a Fellow of the

African Academy of Sciences The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) is a non-aligned, non-political, not-for-profit, pan-African learned society formed in 1985. The AAS elects fellows ( FAAS) and affiliates. The AAS also awards the Obasanjo Prize for Scientific Discovery a ...

in 2018. Connel received the British Association Medal (Silver) from the South Africa Association of the Advancement of Science (

S_2A_3

) in 1994, and the National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF)'s Awards for ''Innovation and Research and/or Development: Corporate Organisation'' in 2022 for leading the MinPET project. In 2025, Connell received the John Wheatley Award with

Gihan Kamel Gihan Kamel is an Egyptian physicist known for her work as an Infrared Beamline Scientist in the Synchrotron-light project for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME). She lives in Jordan. Education and early life G ...

and

Sekazi Mtingwa Sekazi Kauze Mtingwa: (born Michael Von Sawyer; October 20, 1949) is an American theoretical high-energy physicist. He is a co-recipient of the 2017 Robert R. Wilson Prize for Achievement in the Physics of Particle Accelerators. He is the first ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Connell, Simon Living people Fellows of the African Academy of Sciences Year of birth missing (living people) University of the Witwatersrand alumni University of Johannesburg alumni South African physicists People associated with CERN Fellows of the Royal Society of South Africa