Stéphane Willocq is an American physicist. He is a professor of physics at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

and is involved in the upgrade of the muon trigger with MDT chambers for the high luminosity

Large Hadron Collider The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It was built by the CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008, in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists, ...

Early life and education

Willocq completed his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in physics degree from the

Université libre de Bruxelles The (French language, French, ; lit. Free University of Brussels; abbreviated ULB) is a French-speaking research university in Brussels, Belgium. It has three campuses: the ''Solbosch'' campus (in the City of Brussels and Ixelles), the ''Plain ...

before traveling to the United States to enroll at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...

. He had originally intended to remain in Brussels but funding difficulties forced him to spend a year working on his neutrino experiment as a visiting scientist at Fermilab.

Career

Upon joining the faculty at the

, Willocq began working on different aspects of 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 ...

full time since 2004. As an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

, Willocq served as the software coordinator and a member of the steering group for the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer. In 2009, he collaborated with colleagues to run experiments to collect data on fundamental atomic particles in the hopes that it would reveal new states of matter and unveil the secrets of dark matter. His work was recognized by the

European Organization for Nuclear Research European, or Europeans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe and other We ...

in 2012 after he co-wrote large parts of the code used to reconstruct the trajectories of muons detected in the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer. In October 2016, Willocq was elected a Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

for "contributions to the physics of heavy flavor in electron-positron collisions; searches for new vector bosons in proton-proton collisions at the highest energies at the Large Hadron Collider; and for exceptional leadership of the exotic physics and technical groups during the first data-collection with the ATLAS experiment." He was also elected to serve on the ATLAS' experiments publications committee chair from 2016 until 2018. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Willocq received funding from the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear w ...

"to advance knowledge of how the universe works at its most fundamental level." He was also promoted from Deputy to Lead Physics Coordinator. From 2023-2023, Willocq served as deputy spokesperson of the ATLAS experiment, after which he was elected ATLAS spokesperson for the period 2025-2027.https://atlas.cern/Discover/Collaboration/Management/StephaneWillocq

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Willocq, Stephane Living people 21st-century American physicists Tufts University alumni University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society Year of birth missing (living people)