RKE Group and collaborators
Group members at Vanderbilt
Dr. Benjamin Kimelman
Postdoctoral Research Scientist (Spring 2023 - )
PhD 2022, UC Davis
Research Interests -
QGP formation time
Impact of the formation time on hard probes
Nuclear modification of hard probes using a pre-QGP formation baseline
Dr. Jussi Viinikainen
Postdoctoral Research Scientist (Fall 2022 - )
PhD 2017 University of Jyväskylä
Research Interests -
jet substructure in heavy ion collision
energy-energy correlators
Dr. Zhong Yang
Postdoctoral Research Scientist (Fall 2024 - )
PhD 2024 CCNU
Research Interests -
Exp (CMS) and Theory (XSCAPE)
n-point energy correlators and their usefulness in data
Jennifer James
PhD Candidate (Fall 2022 - )
Jet substructure measurements at sPHENIX
Christopher Platte
PhD Candidate (Fall 2022 - )
Heavy flavor jets and Machine Learning at sPHENIX
McKenna Sleeth
PhD Candidate (co-advised by
Prof. J-F Pacquet) (Fall 2022 - )
Photon fragmentation within Jets in data and from JETSCAPE at RHIC energies
Laurynette Griffin
(she/they)
(she/they)
Graduate Student (co-advised by
Prof. Yi Luna Chen) (Fall 2023 - )
Jet substructure at RHIC w/ sPHENIX
Lucas Mefferd
High School Student (Spring - Fall 2024 )
Simulation studies of EECs at the EIC
Umar Soheil Qureshi
Undergrad student at Vandy (Class of 2025)
Tuning Herwig and Machine learning studies of parton showers
Jeseleth Van Rose
Graduate Student (Fall 2024 - )
Phenomenology studies of jet quenching
Rachel Koh
Undergrad student at Vandy (Class of 2027 )
Simulation studies of n-point energy-energy correlators and impact of background
Junxing Sheng
Undergrad student at Vandy (Class of 2025)
Jet quenching studies of n-point energy-energy correlators
Reagan Nisbet
High School Student (Summer 2024 - )
Simulation studies of parton fragmentation at the EIC
Close collaborators (Students)
Nuno Olavo
PhD Student w/ Dr. Liliana Apolinario,
Youqi Song (Yale)
PhD Student advised by Prof. Helen Caines
Andrew Tamis (Yale)
PhD Student advised by Prof. Helen Caines
Monika Robotkova (NPI, Czech)
PhD Student advised by Prof. Jana Bielchikova
Former Mentees and Group Members
Georgi Ponimatkin
Masters Student at NPI, Prague advised by
Prof. Jana Bielchikova
Now - PhD student @ Paris on AI/ML
Dr. Isaac Mooney
PhD student at Wayne State, advised by
Prof. Joern Putschke
Now - Postdoc @ Yale
Jitka Mrazkova
(NPI, Czech)
(NPI, Czech)
Masters Student advised by Prof. Jana Bielchikova
Now - PhD student @ NPI
Savion Johnson
Undergraduate Student
Vanderbilt Class of 2024
PhD Student at UIC (Fall 2024)
Shelby Si Pybus
(they/he)
(they/he)
Undergraduate Student
(Vanderbilt Class of 2024)
PhD Student at Lehigh University (Fall 2024)
Allison Sellers
High School Student (SSMV)
(Spring - Fall 2023)
Undergrad at Vanderbilt (Class of 2028)