Madison Howard, a graduate assistant at FRIB, received the “Best Student Poster” prize at the 2024 International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC’24) in Nashville, Tennessee. Her poster presentation (“Optimizing current density measurements for intense low beta electron beams”) was chosen by members of the IPAC’24 Scientific Program Committee. Howard was one of four prize winners chosen from 192 submissions.
“A common way to measure the profile and current density of an electron beam is to place a diagnostic screen in the path of the beam, which is imaged during the beam pulse,” Howard said. “However, when working at lower energies, this becomes relatively complicated as the electrons can scatter within the material and Cherenkov radiation can be produced, further convoluting measurements. The work presented at IPAC primarily concerned the experimental optimization of the current density diagnostic within low energy regimes.”
Howard, a member of FRIB’s Accelerator Science and Engineering Traineeship (ASET), is in her fifth year as a PhD candidate in MSU’s physics program. This is her second poster award, as she also won a bronze award at the 2023 North American Particle Accelerator Conference (NAPAC).
“I was incredibly honored to receive this award,” Howard said. “My advisors and I have put a great deal of time and effort into fully understanding this problem. Having the top scientists within the field recognize and celebrate the novelty of this project was extremely rewarding.”
Howard has been conducting her research at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) on a full-time basis since May 2022, and works with Joshua Coleman, a staff engineer and scientist at LANL. Her research includes the study of long-pulse electron beams generated from velvet cathodes. This includes developing a full understanding of the emission phenomenon as well as monitoring the current density profiles.
Howard credits her connection to LANL to her FRIB advisor, FRIB Beam Instrumentation and Measurements Department Manager Steve Lidia.
“FRIB, particularly the ASET program and faculty, provided me with the necessary knowledge to excel within the accelerator community,” Howard said. “In 2021, I was connected to LANL through Dr. Lidia, where I have been given the opportunity to foster that knowledge further.”
“Madison made the shift from MSU to LANL quickly and seamlessly,” said Lidia. “The ASET program supported her preparation, which allowed her to jump into national laboratory research almost immediately, leading to presenting her work at numerous conferences and garnering several awards for research.”
After graduation, Howard plans to continue her accelerator-based work at a national laboratory.
Michigan State University (MSU) operates the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) as a user facility for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC), with financial support from and furthering the mission of the DOE-SC Office of Nuclear Physics.
The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of today’s most pressing challenges. For more information, visit energy.gov/science.