Short-Lived Radioactive Molecules
Precision measurements of molecular systems provide highly sensitive laboratories for exploring the possible violation of fundamental symmetries and search for new physics beyond the standard model physics [Barr14,Demi17,Safr18]. Radioactive molecules compound of heavy and deformed short-lived isotopes are predicted to offer unprecedented sensitivity to investigate parity and time reversal violation effects. However, the experimental knowledge of short-lived radioactive molecules is scarce, and quantum chemistry calculations has constituted the only source of spectroscopy information.
[Barr14] Barry, J. et al. Nature 512, 286 (2014).
[Demi17] DeMille et al. Science 357, 990 (2017).
[Safr18] Safronova et al. Rev Mod Phys 90, 025008 (2018).
Ronald Fernando Garcia Ruiz
Office: 26-427
Department of Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue. Cambridge, MA
Phone: +1 (617) 253 8085
Administrative Assistant
Elysse Galarza
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Chief Disruptor
Emma Garcia Joaqui
EMA Lab
Cambridge, MA
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.
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.
Fellowships & Awards
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2023 Popular Science “Brilliant 10”
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2023 Sloan Research Fellowship
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2022 APS Stuart Jay Freedman Award
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2022 IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Nuclear Physics
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2021 National Academic Award in Science, Alejandro Angel Escobar Prize, Colombia
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2020 DOE Early Career Award
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2020 FRIB visiting scholar award
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2020 Fundamental Physics and Innovation award - Convening award - Gordon & Betty Moore
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2019 MISTI Global Seed Fund award
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2018 – 2019 CERN Research Fellowship. CERN, Switzerland
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2018 IOP Nuclear Physics Group Early Career Prize. Institute of Physics (IOP), UK.
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2018 Best PhD Thesis prize (period 2015-2017.) Nuclear Physics Division of the European Physical Society (EPS).
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2011 – 2015 PhD scholarship. KU Leuven, Belgium.
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2009 – 2011 Graduate Studies Fellowship. National Congress of Sci. and Tech. CONACYT, Mexico.
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2008 – 2008 Summer student scholarship. ORNL, USA.
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2006 – 2009 Undergraduate fellowship -
Department of Physics. Univ. Nacional de Colombia.
Graduate Students @ MIT
Silviu-Marian Udrescu
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Scott Moroch
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Fabian Pastrana Cruz
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Derick Gonzalez-Acevedo
Harvard
derick_gonzalezacevedo@g.harvard.edu
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Jose Miguel Munoz Arias
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Matteo Fulghieri
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Shungo Fukaya
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Shane Wilkins
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CERN, Geneva 1211
Geneva, Switzerland
Postdoctoral Researchers
Jonas Karthein
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Sepehr Ebadi
Pappalardo Fellow
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Arian Jadbabaie
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Antoine Belley
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Technical Support
Danielle Petterson
dsp759@mit.edu
Mechanical Design Engineer
BATES, MIT
Principal Research Engineer
Ernest Ihloff
eihloff@mit.edu
Bates Research and Engineering BATES, MIT
Principal Research Engineer
Christopher J Vidal
cvidal@mit.edu
Senior Mechanical Designer
BATES, MIT
Principal Research Engineer
Undergraduate Students
Saul Balcarcel-Salazar
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Andoni Fernandez Chiu
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Samuel Munoz
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Norma M Ching-Hau
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Raul Hernandez Sosa
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Former Members
Postdocs
Adam Vernon
email: adam.vernon@duke.edu
Duke University, US
Ivana Belosevic
TRIUMF
US
Visiting researchers
Graduates
Cory Binnersley (Postdoc supervision)
PhD Supervisor: Prof. Kieran Flanagan
The University of Manchester
cory.binnersley@manchester.ac.uk
Room 4.18 Schuster Laboratory
Manchester, UK.
Christopher Ricketts (co-supervision)
PhD Supervisor: Prof. Kieran Flanagan
The University of Manchester
christopher.ricketts@manchester.ac.uk
CERN, Geneva 1211
Geneva, Switzerland
Agi Koszorus (co-supervision)
PhD Supervisor: Prof. Gerda Neyens
KU Leuven
agi.koszorus@kuleuven.be
CERN, Geneva 1211
Geneva, Switzerland
Fredrik Parnefjord Gustafsson (co-supervision)
PhD Supervisor: Prof. Gerda Neyens
KU Leuven
fredrik.parnefjord.gustafsson@cern.ch
CERN, Geneva 1211
Geneva, Switzerland
Undergraduates
Juan Antonio Luera
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Athira Arayath
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Andoni Fernandez Chiu
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Camila Zavala
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Nicolas K Tanaka
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Erick Padilla
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Aydan Pirani
aydanpirani@gmail.com
University of Illinois
Champaign, IL
Kunal Gupta
ph1170826@iitd.ac.in
ETH Zurich
Zurich, Switzerland
Ethan Gabriel Granger
Middlebury College
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Juan Angel Luera
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
Parashar Mohapatra
pm2399@uw.edu
University of Washington
Seattle WA, US
Diego A. Rivera
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Cambridge, MA
