Enrique Arrieta Diaz
Universidad del Magdalena
Statement
I started studying neutrinos during my early graduate studies, when I reviewed
neutrino mass models for my master’s thesis. The theoretical work help me
understand that I wanted to do the experiments that would study the elusive
neutrino properties. I joined NOvA in the early months of 2009 as a Ph.D.
student at MSU, and moved to Fermilab later that year. Fermilab was the place
to be for me. The lab always was The Theatre of Dreams, where the big things in
particle physics happened, and where the world experts on the matter lived. At
Fermilab I joined the crew that verified and installed the electronics on the
NOvA’s prototype detector on the surface, and later helped commissioning the
detector. I used the prototype’s data for my Ph.D. thesis, which I did as part of
the neutrino group at Argonne National Lab. The study found muon neutrino
events from kaon decays in the NuMI beam, and helped to calibrate the MC
used by NOvA, given the off-axis angle in which the prototype sat. I then moved
to SMU as a postdoc, where I worked in the early stages of the muon neutrino
charged current inclusive cross section measurement done with NOvA’s near
detector. I also helped to strengthen SMU’s computing cluster serving Fermilab
as part of OSG. We developed a file transfer system, following Fermilab
standards, so the cluster would be useful to produce MC files for the
experiment. Nowadays I am a physics professor at Universidad del Magdalena
in my hometown, in Colombia, collaborating with NOvA and DUNE.
My time at Fermilab helped me to grow as a physics, particularly by following
the steps of its expert users. They taught me the high standards with which the
lab carries on its scientific endeavors, the collaborative spirit of big scientific
projects, and the rigorous scientific method with which they work daily. My
mission now is to help underprivileged students to achieve their dreams through
science. We use our current collaboration with Fermilab neutrino experiments to
give Magdalena student the opportunities that only Fermilab experiments offer
worldwide. I have been a Fermilab user for over a decade now, and this
opportunity changed my life. I wish that more scientist from developing
countries have the same opportunities that I had. Hence, as a member of the
UEC, I would work for Fermilab to remain as The Theatre of Dreams that people
seek all over the world. Neutrino experiments constantly benefit from scientists
from developing countries, and the trend must continue. We should all work to
keep Fermilab at the top of the world, so it can keep leading the progress of
mankind.