The Faraday Cup Award

Left to Right: Thomas Shea, Kevin Jordan, Laura Segui, Andreas Jansson

Lara Sequi has been announced the 2019 recipient of the Faraday Cup Award, which is given to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the development of an innovative beam diagnostic instrument.

In her PhD program at the University of Zaragoza, Sequi specialized in particle physics, investigating the neutrinoless double beta decay inside the Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon TPC collaboration, known as the NEXT collaboration. Her research group proposed to read the high pressure that builds in the Xenon-gas-filled Time Projection Chamber using a Micro-Mesh Gaseous Structure detector, also known as a Micromegas detector. Through this work, Sequi gained expertise with Micromegas detectors and with particle identification and background rejection techniques, as well as with GEANT4 simulations. Although this design was not the final choice for the NEXT experiment, the development work became the baseline for the Particle and Astrophysical Xenon Detector, or PandaX experiment. 

After her PhD, Sequi became a postdoc at the University of Oxford Department of Physics, supervised by Steve Biller. She continued to specialize in rare event searches and neutrinoless double beta decay while working on the SNO+ Experiment, a follow-on experiment of the original Sudbury Neutrino Observatory experiment. In this experiment, the double beta target is Tellurium-130 that has been loaded in liquid scintillator and read by photomultiplier tubes. She continues participating in SNO+ via work on the background study and rejection techniques applying likelihood methods.

Upon finishing her postdoc, she began working with Thomas Papaevengelou to integrate the new Beam Loss Monitor project. The nBLM is based on the detection of neutrons using a Micromegas detector. For this work, Sequi has drawn on her experience with the CERN Axion Solar Telescope experiment that she had also worked on during her PhD, as well as experience at CEA characterizing different type of Micromegas. In the nBLM project, she used her expertise in GEANT4 simulations, Micromegas detectors and detector commissioning during the test of the detectors.

2009- 2013: PhD in Physics, University of Zaragoza. Max. Qualification obtained: Cum Laude
Tittle: "Pattern Recognition in a High Pressure Time Projection Chamber prototype with a Micromegas readout for the 136Xe double beta decay" Directors: Dr. Gloria Luzon and Dr. Theopisti Dafni

2008- 2009: M.Sc., Master in Physics and Technology of Physics, University of Zaragoza
Master Thesis: "Signal discrimination in a TPC: Muons", Director: Dr. Gloria Luzón

2002-2008: B.S., Physics, University of Zaragoza
Thesis: "Black holes: Properties and their possible production in accelerators", Director: Dr. Vicente Azcoiti

Publications