Laboratory of Exotic Molecules and Atoms

Prof. Ronald Fernando Garcia Ruiz is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics at MIT. His research actives are focused on the development of laser spectroscopy techniques to investigate the properties of subatomic particles using atoms and molecules made up of short-lived radioactive nuclei. His experimental work provides unique information about the fundamental forces of nature, the properties of nuclear matter at the limits of existence, and the search for new physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics.

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Ronald grew up in a small town in the Colombian mountains. As a teenager he moved to Bogota, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in physics in 2009 at Universidad Nacional de Colombia. After earning a Master’s degree in Physics in 2011 at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, he moved to Belgium to start his PhD degree at KU Leuven. Ronald was based at CERN during most of his PhD working on laser spectroscopy techniques for the study of short-lived atomic nuclei. After his PhD, he became a Research Associate at The University of Manchester (2016-2017). In 2018, he was awarded a CERN Research Fellowship to lead the local CRIS team. At CERN, he has led several experimental programmes motivated by modern developments in nuclear science, atomic physics and quantum chemistry.

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Fellowships & Awards

• 2023 Popular Science “Brilliant 10”

• 2023 Sloan Research Fellowship

• 2022 APS Stuart Jay Freedman Award

• 2022 IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Nuclear Physics

• 2021 National Academic Award in Science, Alejandro Angel Escobar Prize, Colombia 

• 2020 DOE Early Career Award

• 2020 FRIB visiting scholar award

• 2020 Fundamental Physics and Innovation award - Convening award - Gordon & Betty Moore

• 2019 MISTI Global Seed Fund award

• 2018 – 2019 CERN Research Fellowship. CERN, Switzerland

• 2018 IOP Nuclear Physics Group Early Career Prize. Institute of Physics (IOP), UK.

• 2018 Best PhD Thesis prize (period 2015-2017.) Nuclear Physics Division of the European Physical Society (EPS).

• 2011 – 2015 PhD scholarship. KU Leuven, Belgium.

• 2009 – 2011 Graduate Studies Fellowship. National Congress of Sci. and Tech. CONACYT, Mexico.

• 2008 – 2008 Summer student scholarship. ORNL, USA.

• 2006 – 2009  Undergraduate fellowship -
  Department of Physics. Univ. Nacional de Colombia.