Dr Seth Zenz

Profile

Seth Zenz is an expert on Big Data analysis at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) who became a Lecturer in the QMUL Particle Physics Research Centre in 2018. He works on Higgs Boson measurements, the ATLAS Inner Tracker upgrade, new silicon detector technologies, and data science/analysis teaching to undergraduates and degree apprentices.

Seth completed his PhD in 2011 at the University of California, Berkeley on the ATLAS experiment, studying the properties of jets in early LHC data.  Over the course of two postdocs at Princeton University and Imperial College London, he made a range of measurements within the Higgs program at the Compact Muon Solenoid collaboration and led its Higgs to di-photon analysis group for 2016-18.

Teaching

I lead on the development of Data Science and Data Analytics apprenticeship programmes within my department, and I am the deputy programme lead for the Digital Technology Solutions Professional degree apprenticeship programme, with a particular focus on the Data Analyst pathway. In this capacity I have developed many modules, and I currently teach new employed-based module called The Data Landscape. My past teaching in this area includes:

• Introduction to Data Programming (developer, inaugural MO 2022-23)
• Introduction to Data Science (inaugural MO, taught 2021-23)
• Statistical Data Analysis (taught 2020-22)

I also developed the following modules that are being delivered for the first time in 2023-24 with my support as Deputy Module Organiser:

• Data Analysis and Data Solutions
• Professional Software and Career Practices

Research

Research Interests:

See Seth Zenz’s research profile pages including details of research interests, publications, and live grants.

Supervision

Below is a list of potential projects for PhD students. Other possibilities can also be discussed.

• Search for Higgs Boson Decays to muons
• Measurements of Higgs Boson Production Kinematics
• Applications of machine learning to Higgs physics
• Detector development
• Ultra-Thin Silicon Detectors

Public Engagement

Seth is the Outreach Coordinator for the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the lead academic contact for the particle physics project for Physics Research in School Environments. He holds a Spark Award from the STFC for developing his Higgs Boson Dominoes project. He has held both large and small internal grants from the Queen Mary Centre for Public Engagement (CPE), was on the Small Grants Panel in 2021-2, and was on the Large Grants Panel in 2022-3.  He won the 2021 SEPNet Public Engagement Champion award for this work, and was interviewed about it in April 2021.