USLUA annual meeting

16 Dec 2025, 13:00 → 18 Dec 2025, 23:30 America/Vancouver

WRF Data Science Studio (Physics and Astronomy Tower (PAC))

Harvey Newman (California Institute of Technology (US))

The US LHC Users Association (https://www.uslua.org) represents the US community of scientists and engineers working in the LHC physics and accelerator programs, and provides a forum of support for, and discussion of, US participation at CERN. We aim to support and uplift US personnel — particularly early career scientists and engineers — as well as acting as a communications channel between the community, US agencies, and the Congressional and Executive Branches.

Please note that early career members of our community are especially encouraged to attend in person, and travel support for a limited number of early career participants can be provided. Requests should be addressed to the Local Organizing Committee. We also encourage them to sign up for Lightning Round Talks to win a trip to our annual advocacy meeting to Washington DC in the Spring.

Early Career Scientists: There is still room left in the schedule for remote Lightning Round talks. Although registration for local participation closed on December 7th, remote registration is open until the meeting. No fee required.

Registration Fee:

• Non-Students: $275
• Students: $200 (possibility of aid - see registration)
• Pay here

 

Short URL: https://indico.cern.ch/e/uslua-general-2025

University of Washington Physics/Astronomy Building

USLUA-20251217a.mp4

Tuesday 16 December

13:00 → 17:00 Mini-symposium in honor of Henry Lubatti

13:00 Check-In for Henry Fest

13:30 Mini-symposium in honor of Henry Lubatti

It really lasts until 17:00, but we have our Exec Session at 15:00.

agenda

15:00 → 16:30 *Closed session*

Convener: Harvey Newman (California Institute of Technology (US))

USLUECMeeting_121625.pdf

16:30 → 17:30 Check-In (Collect Name Tag)

17:00 → 19:00 Joint reception with Henry Fest participants

Wednesday 17 December

08:30 → 09:00 Check-In (Collect Name Tag)

09:00 → 10:00 Welcome & Introductory Talks

09:00 Welcome, University of Washington and its Programs by Associate Dean for Research

Speaker: Prof. Xiaosong Li (University of Washington Seattle (US))

glside

USLUA_5min_for Xiaosong.pptx.pdf

09:20 USLUA Chair Report

Speaker: Harvey Newman (California Institute of Technology (US))

USLUAAnnualMeetingV1_hbn121125s2.pdf

09:50 Introduction, Welcome, Logistics and Safety

Speaker: Shih-Chieh Hsu (University of Washington Seattle (US))

gslide

USLUA 2025.pdf

10:00 → 10:30 Coffee

10:30 → 10:50 Report from APS DPF

10:30 Report from APS DPF

Speaker: Heidi Marie Schellman (Oregon State University (US))

APS DPF - USLUA 2025.pdf

APS DPF - USLUA 2025.pdf

APS DPF - USLUA 2025.pptx

10:50 → 12:15 Government relations

10:50 Government relations and DC trip report and plans

Speaker: Lauren Larson (University of Texas at Austin (US))

USLUA_2025_GovRelations_llarson.pdf

11:15 Government relations panel discussion

Speakers: Breese Quinn (University of Mississippi), Heidi Marie Schellman (Oregon State University (US)), Herman White, Kevin Pedro (Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (US)), Leland Cogliani (Lewis-Burke Associates), Sally Seidel (University of New Mexico / ATLAS)

12:15 → 13:30 Lunch

13:30 → 14:42 Lightning Round Talks

Lightning Round Talk Instructions

13:30 HL-LHC Upgrade of the ATLAS LAr Calorimeter Front-End Readout Electronics

Speaker: Maria Bressan (Columbia University (US))

USLUA.pdf

13:42 Scaling together: Building the Backend Systems alongside the Detector for the CMS Phase 2 Outer Tracker Upgrade

Speaker: John Lawless (University of Tennessee (US))

25_12_17_USLUA_Lawless_OT.pdf

13:54 Jet Mass in Multijet Events as a Probe of QCD at CMS

Speaker: Lauren Meryl Hay (SUNY Buffalo)

USLUA_2025_QCDHay.pdf

14:06 Developing and deploying GPU-accelerated tracking as-a-Service

Speaker: Miles Cochran-Branson (University of Washington (US))

uslua_traccc_aaS_2025.pdf

14:18 Colder than Ice, Stronger than Steel: The Mechanical Structures for the CMS Phase-II Outer Tracker Flat Barrel

Speaker: Christopher Cosby (Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (US))

ccosbyLightningTalk

14:30 Search for single production of a Maverick Top partner using the ATLAS detector

Speaker: Zackary Lee Alegria (Oklahoma State University (US))

searchForMavTop_ZackaryAlegria_USLUA2025.pdf

14:42 → 15:10 Tea

15:10 → 16:50 LHC Reports

15:10 ATLAS Report

Speaker: Alex Zeng Wang (University of California,Santa Cruz (US))

ATLAS_AlexWang_20251217.pdf

15:30 CMS Report

Speaker: Marko Stamenkovic (Brown University (US))

20251217_USLUA.pdf

15:50 LHCb Report

Speaker: Jake Pfaller (University of Cincinnati (US))

USLUA DEC-17-2025.pdf

16:10 Machine Report

Speaker: Maria Baldini

Machine_report_baldini.pdf

16:30 ALICE Report

Speakers: Anthony Robert Timmins (University of Houston (US)), Daniel Tapia Takaki (University of Kansas)

Timmins_ALICE_US LUA meeting 2025 v2.pdf

16:50 → 18:00 Careers

16:50 Career strategies for HEP postdocs, and how their faculty mentors can help

Speaker: Robert Harris (Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (US))

USLUA-Postdoc-Mentoring.pdf

17:20 Breaking into Industry from HEP

Speaker: Nicholas Haubrich

USLUA Breaking into Industry from HEP.pdf

17:50 Questions & Comments from Early Career Scientists

18:30 → 20:30 Conference Dinner

Ivar's Salmon House
401 NE Northlake Way, Seattle, WA 98105
map

Thursday 18 December

09:00 → 10:00 Reports from Agencies

09:00 DOE NP

Speaker: Sharon Stephenson

USLHC-UserMtg-DOE-NP-20251218.pdf

09:30 DOE HEP

Speaker: Regina Abby Rameika (Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (US))

HEP Overview for USLUA - December 2025.pdf

09:50 Questions & Comments from LHC Users

10:00 → 10:30 Coffee

10:30 → 11:00 Report from CERN Users Office

10:30 Report from CERN Users Office

Speaker: Gaelle Duperrier (CERN)

Users Office _ USLUA.pdf

Users Office _ USLUA.pptx

11:00 → 12:10 Lightning Round Talks

Lightning Round Talk Instructions

11:00 Improving vertex tagging efficiency in the search for Higgs decays to dark photons

Speaker: Timothy Thankachen Mathew (University of Oregon (US))

tmathew_uslua_2025.pdf

11:12 The Power of Positive Samples: Eliminating Negative Weights with Optimal Transport

Speaker: Camille Alessia Mauceri (Brown University (US))

Mauceri_lightning_USLUA.pdf

11:24 Lessons Learned at the CHARM Beam Test for CMS Phase-2 Outer Tracker Modules

Speaker: Ashling Clare Quinn (Princeton University (US))

Quinn_USLUA_export.pdf

11:36 Search for Higgs Pairs decaying to the bbgammagamma final state with 308ifb of data from ATLAS

Speaker: Alex Zeng Wang (University of California,Santa Cruz (US))

ATLAS_AlexWang_20251218.pdf

11:48 Cell-Level Classification of Merged Photons: Insights from a Simplified Calorimeter Model

Speaker: Lauren Larson (University of Texas at Austin (US))

USLUA_2025_Lauren_Larson.pdf

12:10 → 12:20 Group Photo

12:20 → 13:15 Lunch

13:15 → 14:15 AI in HEP: A3D3, IRIS HEP, WATCHEP et al: Extending Our DIscovery Reach

Speakers: Gordon Watts (University of Washington (US)), Shih-Chieh Hsu (University of Washington Seattle (US))

2025-12-18 - IRIS-HEP and CompHep.pdf

2025-12-18 - IRIS-HEP and CompHep.pptx

gslide

14:15 → 15:00 Committee Reports

Update from the Fundraising & Finance subcommittee:

Saptaparna Bhattacharya (Chair), John Stupak (Co-Chair), David Saltzberg (Co-Chair), Kiley Kennedy, Caterina Vernieri, Indara Suarez, Harvey Newman

USLUA is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit that needs funding to support its mission.

Typically raise funding through the following avenues:

• Lab drive
• Community drive
• Support for the users meeting (but only if the meeting is at FNAL):
  • University Research Association (URA) Visiting Scholars Program
    Travel support for annual meeting @ FNAL

 Our expenses:

• sending early career members to the DC trip

• materials to give staffers on the DC trip

• subsidizing early career members to attend our annual meeting

 

This year (2025), reached out to the national labs.

Traditionally, most of the national labs with LHC programs have supported us each year. We are optimistic about this support continuing in FY25-26, but the timeline compared to previous years has been delayed due to the government shutdown

Community drive in progress -- led by David

Received support during this meeting! Thank you!

14:15 Quality of Life

Speaker: Steven Goldfarb (University of Melbourne (AU))

GoldfarbQOL-20251218.pdf

GoldfarbQOL-20251218.pptx

14:25 Meetings & Events

Speaker: Steven Goldfarb (University of Melbourne (AU))

GoldfarbMeetings-20251218.pdf

GoldfarbMeetings-20251218.pptx

15:00 → 15:30 Tea

15:30 → 16:15 Invited Theorist

15:30 Melting LHC detectors: a novel search for stopped long-lived particles

Particles at the TeV scale with lifetimes of a year or longer could have been abundantly produced at the LHC yet escaped detection because of backgrounds, and could still be trapped within detector materials. With gluinos in split-supersymmetry as a working example, we show that these trapped particles can be recovered from detector materials once prepared in liquid form, for example, by melting silicon detectors, extracting liquid argon from the electromagnetic calorimeter, or constructing a large water pool near ATLAS or CMS. These liquid samples can then be processed using iterative centrifugation followed by mass spectrometry, enabling single-particle sensitivity in macroscopic samples. This method can potentially discover gluinos up to 3 TeV in mass at the HL-LHC.

Speaker: Samuel S. Y. Wong (University of Washington)

16:15 → 16:45 Awards & Concluding Remarks