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Ronald Fernando Garcia Ruiz

Office: 26-427

Department of Physics

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue. Cambridge, MA

Phone: +1 (617) 253 8085

rgarciar@mit.edu

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Administrative Assistant

Elysse Galarza 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

egalarza@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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DOWNLOAD FULL CV

Chief Disruptor

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Emma Garcia Joaqui
EMA Lab
Cambridge, MA

Prof. Ronald Fernando Garcia Ruiz is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics at MIT. His research actives are focused on the development of laser spectroscopy techniques to investigate the properties of subatomic particles using atoms and molecules made up of short-lived radioactive nuclei. His experimental work provides unique information about the fundamental forces of nature, the properties of nuclear matter at the limits of existence, and the search for new physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics.

Ronald grew up in a small town in the Colombian mountains. As a teenager he moved to Bogota, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in physics in 2009 at Universidad Nacional de Colombia. After earning a Master’s degree in Physics in 2011 at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, he moved to Belgium to start his PhD degree at KU Leuven. Ronald was based at CERN during most of his PhD working on laser spectroscopy techniques for the study of short-lived atomic nuclei. After his PhD, he became a Research Associate at The University of Manchester (2016-2017). In 2018, he was awarded a CERN Research Fellowship to lead the local CRIS team. At CERN, he has led several experimental programmes motivated by modern developments in nuclear science, atomic physics and quantum chemistry.

Fellowships & Awards

  • 2023 Popular Science “Brilliant 10”

  • 2023 Sloan Research Fellowship

  • 2022 APS Stuart Jay Freedman Award

  • 2022 IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Nuclear Physics

  • 2021 National Academic Award in Science, Alejandro Angel Escobar Prize, Colombia 

  • 2020 DOE Early Career Award

  • 2020 FRIB visiting scholar award

  • 2020 Fundamental Physics and Innovation award - Convening award - Gordon & Betty Moore

  • 2019 MISTI Global Seed Fund award

  • 2018 – 2019 CERN Research Fellowship. CERN, Switzerland

  • 2018 IOP Nuclear Physics Group Early Career Prize. Institute of Physics (IOP), UK.

  • 2018 Best PhD Thesis prize (period 2015-2017.) Nuclear Physics Division of the European Physical Society (EPS).

  • 2011 – 2015 PhD scholarship. KU Leuven, Belgium.

  • 2009 – 2011 Graduate Studies Fellowship. National Congress of Sci. and Tech. CONACYT, Mexico.

  • 2008 – 2008 Summer student scholarship. ORNL, USA.

  • 2006 – 2009  Undergraduate fellowship -
    Department of Physics. Univ. Nacional de Colombia.

Graduate Students @ MIT

Haruka Kakioka

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

kakiokah@mit.edu

Department of Chemistry

Cambridge, MA

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Alex Brinson
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

brinson@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Silviu-Marian Udrescu 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

sudrescu@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Scott Moroch

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

s-----@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Fabian Pastrana Cruz

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

pastrana@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Derick Gonzalez-Acevedo

Harvard

derick_gonzalezacevedo@g.harvard.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Jose Miguel Munoz Arias

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

josemm@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Matteo Fulghieri

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

mfulgh@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Shungo Fukaya

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

shung449@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Shane Wilkins 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

wilkinss@mit.edu

CERN, Geneva 1211

Geneva, Switzerland 

Postdoctoral Researchers 

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Jonas Karthein

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

karthein@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Sepehr Ebadi

Pappalardo Fellow

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

s---@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

Arian Jadbabaie

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

arianjad@gmail.com

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

Antoine Belley

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

abelley@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Technical Support

Danielle Petterson
dsp759@mit.edu
Mechanical Design Engineer
BATES, MIT

Principal Research Engineer

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Ernest Ihloff
eihloff@mit.edu
Bates Research and Engineering BATES, MIT
Principal Research Engineer

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Christopher J Vidal
cvidal@mit.edu
Senior Mechanical Designer
BATES, MIT

Principal Research Engineer

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Undergraduate Students

Karina Khusainova

Vanderbilt University

karina.khusainova@vanderbilt.edu

Physics

Nashville, TN

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Saul Balcarcel-Salazar

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

saulb@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Andoni Fernandez Chiu

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

andonifc@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Samuel Munoz

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

samuel21@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Norma M Ching-Hau 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

normmch@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Raul Hernandez Sosa 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

raulh482@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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LASER SPECTROSCOPY AT RADIOACTIVE BEAM FACILITIES

CRIS Collaboration @ CERN

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COLLAPS Collaboration @ CERN

Former Members

Postdocs

Adam Vernon
email: adam.vernon@duke.edu

Duke University, US

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Ivana Belosevic

TRIUMF

US 

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Visiting researchers

Diego Torres, Professor

Universidad Nacional de Colombia

datorresg@unal.edu.co

Bogota, Colombia

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Graduates

Cory Binnersley (Postdoc supervision)

PhD Supervisor: Prof. Kieran Flanagan

The University of Manchester

cory.binnersley@manchester.ac.uk

Room 4.18 Schuster Laboratory 

Manchester, UK.

Christopher Ricketts (co-supervision)

PhD Supervisor: Prof. Kieran Flanagan

The University of Manchester

christopher.ricketts@manchester.ac.uk

CERN, Geneva 1211

Geneva, Switzerland 

Agi Koszorus (co-supervision)

PhD Supervisor: Prof. Gerda Neyens

KU Leuven

agi.koszorus@kuleuven.be

CERN, Geneva 1211

Geneva, Switzerland 

Fredrik Parnefjord Gustafsson (co-supervision)

PhD Supervisor: Prof. Gerda Neyens

KU Leuven

fredrik.parnefjord.gustafsson@cern.ch

CERN, Geneva 1211

Geneva, Switzerland 

Undergraduates

Juan Antonio Luera
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

jluera@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Athira Arayath 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

athira@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Andoni Fernandez Chiu

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

andonifc@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Camila Zavala

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

camila05@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Nicolas K Tanaka

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

nitanaka@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Erick Padilla

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

padillae@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Aydan Pirani
aydanpirani@gmail.com

University of Illinois

Champaign, IL

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Kunal Gupta  
ph1170826@iitd.ac.in

ETH Zurich

Zurich, Switzerland

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Ethan Gabriel Granger

Middlebury College

egtyler@middlebury.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Juan Angel Luera
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

j_luera@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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Parashar Mohapatra
pm2399@uw.edu
University of Washington
Seattle WA, US

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Juntian Tu

University of California, Santa Barbara

 juntian@ucsb.edu 

Santa Barbara, US

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Diego A. Rivera

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

dr_orona@mit.edu

Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Cambridge, MA

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