SBU Physics Undergrad Continues Her Research on Campus This Summer

Alo Chakravarty '26- the URECA researcher of the month for August -is a physics major in the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) honors program. Last year as a sophomore year, she began experimental high energy/particle physics research under the mentorship of John Hobbs, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, earning credit through PHY287: Introduction to Research.

This summer, Chakravarty had the opportunity to continue her work and engage in full-time research with Chemistry Professor Maria Nagan through the Frances Velay Science Fellowshipprogram funded by the Panaphil Foundation. In addition, she was one of two Velay Fellows to be awarded the inaugural Physics and Astronomy Barish-URECA award, which provides additional support to undergraduate summer researchers.

When asked if research was a factor in her decision to attend Stony Brook, Chakravarty responded, "Yes, it was a big reason why I came here. I've known for a while that I want to pursue graduate school and a career as an experimental physicist. Stony Brook's undergraduate research opportunities and support from the WISE program were important factors in my decision, as was its activity in high energy physics research. The faculty here are very welcoming to young researchers, and that's really important in preparing students for graduate school and for careers in STEM."

Chakravarty's project focuses on the analysis of an exotic Higgs decay pp → H → Za →bbμμ through data recorded with the ATLAS detector at CERN's Large Hadron Collider and required learning to use ROOT, CERN's data analysis framework used for high energy physics. She uses Python, C++ and ROOT in her research to analyze data using machine learning techniques. Chakravarty will have the opportunity to present her first research poster, "Investigating the Exotic Higgs Boson Decay pp → H → Za → bbμμ with the Large Hadron Collider," at the Summer Symposium on August 2, along with other undergraduates involved in summer research programs.

At Stony Brook, Chakravarty enjoys being a tutor in the Academic Success and Tutoring Center; she is also a member of the Society of Physics Students.

Read the full interview with URECA Director Karen Kernan.