The Accelerator Science and Engineering Traineeship (ASET) program at MSU offers PhD and master's graduate students in physics and astronomy and engineering an exciting training opportunity.

The ASET program is part of MSU’s nuclear physics graduate program, which is nationally top-ranked according to the U.S. News & World Report. Over the past five years, MSU has awarded about 15 percent of the nuclear physics doctoral degrees.

Below are testimonials from some of the program’s past students.

Crispin Contreras-Martinez

Thesis defense date: 5/26/21

Crispin Contreras-Martinez is pursuing a PhD in physics at Michigan State University, with Professor of Physics Peter Ostroumov serving as his advisor. For his research topic, he is studying the electromagnetic and mechanical properties of medium beta superconducting elliptical cavities.

What are your research responsibilities?
My thesis project is to understand the limitations of fast tuners based on piezo actuators. Superconducting (SC) linear accelerators (linacs) can provide high power proton and ion beams in continuous wave (CW) or pulsed mode operation. Linacs have become an important tool for research in many fields such as high energy physics, nuclear physics, and material science just to name a few. One of the main components of a linac are the SC cavities which accelerate the particles via coupling to the radio-frequency (RF) power. Cavities in CW mode are operated at very high loaded quality factor (QL), which results in a small bandwidth making them susceptible to noise which causes detuning. In the case of cavities operated in the pulsed mode, the main source of detuning will be caused by radiation pressure (Lorentz force detuning). These types of detuning can be compensated by using more RF power which can be very costly. Additionally, if the power coupler can’t provide enough power to compensate for the detuning, the cavity will not be able to maintain the accelerating gradient which will result in operational downtime. A cost-effective approach to mitigating the detuning has been shown with the use of piezo actuators for fast detuning. I am studying control algorithms and the development of a reliable piezo tuning systems with long lifetime for applications both in CW or pulsed linacs.

How do you think participating in the ASET program at MSU will benefit your career?
With the support of the ASET program, I will be able to continue my research at Fermilab and will stay here until I finish my PhD. Staying at Fermilab is essential for my thesis project since my collaborators have a lot of experience working with resonance control. While at Fermilab, I will work to develop algorithms and hardware for my project. With my results, I will be able to present my work at the International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC), the Linear Accelerator Conference (LINAC), or the International Conference on Superconducting Radiofrequency (SRF).

The ASET program can support your stay at a national laboratory – at which laboratory are you interested in further your training and what are your research interests there?
I’ve spent five months in Fermilab with the SCGSR grant (six months) that I obtained in October 2017. During this time, I worked with different tuners. I measured the stiffness of the tuners as well as the piezo stroke for the 650MHz cavity. I have also measured the piezo stroke at cold temperatures (2k operation) for 1.3 GHz Cavities and 3.9 GHz cavities which are used for the LCLS II project. I have also been exposed to the low-level RF (LLRF) system that is used as well as their data acquisition system. I’m eager to learn more about this systems since they are critical for the resonance control. Lastly, while at Fermilab, I learned about resonance control of a system and how to characterize it.

Kellen E. McGee

Thesis defense date: 4/18/23

Kellen E. McGee is a graduate student from Oxford, Michigan, pursuing a PhD in nuclear or accelerator physics. She is researching the superconducting radio frequency on FRIB energy-upgrade elliptical cavities. Kellen joined the ASET program in Spring 2018.

What are your research responsibilities?
The beta=0.65 644MHz cavities are in the prototype research and development stages. I perform exploratory measurements as we work to determine the production parameters for FRIB implementation. This includes field flatness measurements, quality-factor (Q-factor) measurements, and research regarding cavity processing techniques to increase Q factor.

How do you think participating in the ASET program at MSU will benefit for your career?
I think the program has the unique potential to connect me to opportunities in the world of national laboratories and accelerator physics should I choose that route. If I do not choose that route, I still value the technical introduction to truly unique systems engineering challenges.    

The ASET program can support your stay at a national laboratory – at which laboratory are you interested in further your training and what are your research interests there?
I am interested in the Brookhaven National Laboratory or Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and there are connections between my current research and ongoing work at Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

The ASET program can support your stay at a national laboratory – at which laboratory are you interested in further your training and what are your research interests there?
I am not sure yet.

Cristhian Gonzalez-Ortiz

Thesis defense date: 4/9/24

Cristhian Gonzalez-Ortiz is a PhD student from Bogota, Colombia, pursuing a degree in physics at Michigan State University. Professor of Physics Peter Ostroumov serves as his advisor. For his research topic, he is studying storage rings for low-energy radioactive isotope beams. Cristhian joined the ASET program in fall 2019.

What are your research responsibilities?
I am looking into the main subsystems that compose a low-energy storage ring. Specifically, I am performing particle-tracking simulations focusing on the mass separation capabilities of such rings. Additionally, I am trying to estimate the operation conditions for the electron cooling system of such a ring. The end goal is to look at the feasibility and usability of building a low-energy heavy-ion storage ring at FRIB. 

What interested you about the ASET program?
I think accelerator sciences is the intersection between fundamental physics and applied physics. It’s right there, in that sweet spot, where I find physics the most exciting and interesting. MSU’s ASET program gives me the proper tools to contribute to and succeed in this field of physics.

How will participating in the ASET program benefit your career?
Michigan State University’s ASET program allows me to immerse successfully in the accelerator science world. All of the courses taught under this program allow me to build my theoretical knowledge and the intuition for the physical processes in question. The ASET program is also helping me build the right connections to make meaningful contributions to the field.

What career path do you plan to pursue?
Right now, my career plan is to graduate with my PhD and join a national laboratory as a research associate to put my fresh skills to work. Down the road, I would like to join a university as an associate professor.

At which laboratory are you interested in furthering your training, and what are your research interests there?
I am interested in furthering my training at Brookhaven National Laboratory, where I can contribute to the development of the EIC (Electron Ion Collider)—the next big project in American physics.

Would you recommend ASET to other students? Why?
I would definitely recommend the ASET program to other students because the people running it want you to succeed. Faculty in charge of the ASET program will not only help you develop the theoretical and practical skills for accelerator sciences, but they will also acknowledge you as an important piece of this field’s future. For me, that is very important.

Michael Balcewicz

Thesis defense date: 5/3/23

Michael Balcewicz is pursuing a PhD in physics at Michigan State University with Professor Yue Hao serving as his advisor. He is from Aliso Viejo, California. For his research topic, he intends to research generalizing a square potential well beam model to accommodate multiple square wells. Michael joined the ASET program in Spring 2018.

What are your research responsibilities?
My research topic is on generalizing a square potential well beam model to accommodate multiple square wells.  The square wells are interesting to study because they are analytically solvable and can be used to study and better understand what physical parameters create instabilities in a beam.  To this point however, only one potential well has been used for these models, which limits its applicability to real systems.  Adding multiple square wells allows the model to more closely model a real beam.

How do you think participating in the ASET program at MSU will benefit your career?
Since I want to work at a national laboratory after graduation, doing my thesis research at national laboratory will help me get a foot in the door.

The ASET program can support your stay at a national laboratory – at which laboratory are you interested in further your training and what are your research interests there?
Brookhaven National Laboratory.  They have a lot of interesting work with the possible upgrade to the high energy electron-ion collider as well as light source work at the National Synchrotron Light Source II.

Elliot Lu

Thesis defense date: 5/8/23

Elliot Lu is pursuing a PhD in physics at Michigan State University, with Associate Professor of Physics Yue Hao serving as his advisor. For his research topic, he is studying computational and theoretical accelerator physics (thesis topic undecided). He has been in MSU’s Accelerator Science and Engineering Traineeship (ASET) program since 1 November 2017.

What are your research responsibilities?
I am not employed as a research assistant right now. My responsibility is to write code using particle-in-cell and fast-multipole methods with application to accelerator simulation. The aim is to familiarize myself with both the algorithms and underlying physics, in preparation for future research.

How do you think participating in the ASET program at MSU will benefit your career?
The ASET program will sponsor me for internships at national labs, giving me research experience I could not otherwise gain at MSU. Such experience will both aid my PhD candidacy and be esteemed by future employers, whether in academia or industry.

The ASET program can support your stay at a national laboratory – at which laboratory are you interested in further your training and what are your research interests there?
This summer, I am looking to intern at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. I plan to do algorithm development for the Berkeley Lab Accelerator Simulation Toolkit (BLAST), especially in the area of electrostatic simulations (IMPACT).

Chris Richard

Thesis defense date: 11/6/20

Chris Richard is pursuing a PhD in accelerator physics at Michigan State University with Adjunct Professor of Physics Steven Lidia serving as his advisor. For his research topic, Chris is studying non-relativistic beam instrumentation and diagnostics. 

What are your research responsibilities?
My research focuses on accounting for non-relativistic effects in beam diagnostics. The electromagnetic fields from non-relativistic beams resemble those of charges at rest, causing the field extents on opposite sides of the beam pipe to differ. Beam diagnostics that rely on measuring the field at the pipe wall, such as button beam-position monitors (BPMs), are affected by this disparity in the fields. I am developing a helical pulse line that is capable of replicating the fields from non-relativistic beams. The pulse line will be used to calibrate for non-relativistic effects on a test stand.