Ronald Fernando Garcia Ruiz
Office: 26-427
Department of Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue. Cambridge, MA
Phone: +1 (617) 253 8085
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
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DOE Early Career Award 2020
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2020 FRIB visiting scholar award
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2020 Fundamental Physics and Innovation award - Convening award - Gordon & Betty Moore
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2019 MISTI Global Seed Fund award
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2018 – 2019 CERN Research Fellowship. CERN, Switzerland
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2018 IOP Nuclear Physics Group Early Career Prize. Institute of Physics (IOP), UK.
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2018 Best PhD Thesis prize (period 2015-2017.) Nuclear Physics Division of the European Physical Society (EPS).
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2011 – 2015 PhD scholarship. KU Leuven, Belgium.
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2009 – 2011 Graduate Studies Fellowship. National Congress of Sci. and Tech. CONACYT, Mexico.
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2008 – 2008 Summer student scholarship. ORNL, USA.
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2006 – 2009 Undergraduate fellowship -
Department of Physics. Univ. Nacional de Colombia.
Graduate Students @ MIT

Silviu-Marian Udrescu
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Boston, US

Adam Vernon
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Boston, US

Postdoctoral Researchers
Shane Wilkins
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CERN, Geneva 1211
Geneva, Switzerland

Jonas Karthein
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Boston, US

Ivana Belosevic
TRIUMF
ETH
Zurich, Switzerland

Technical Support
Ernest Ihloff
Bates Research and Engineering Center (BATES), MIT
Principal Research Engineer

Undergraduate Students
Kunal Gupta
Indian Institute of Technology
Delhi, India

Parashar Mohapatra
University of Washington
Seattle WA, US

Jeong Min Kong
University of Toronto
Toronto, Canada

María Paula Montes Bejarano
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Bogotá, Colombia

Fabian Pastrana Cruz
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Bogotá, Colombia

High-School Students
Aydan Pirani
Evergreen Valley High School
San Jose, CA, US

LASER SPECTROSCOPY AT RADIOACTIVE BEAM FACILITIES
CRIS Collaboration @ CERN
COLLAPS Collaboration @ CERN
Former Members
Graduates
Cory Binnersley (PhD co-supervisor)
The University of Manchester
cory.binnersley@manchester.ac.uk
Room 4.18 Schuster Laboratory
Manchester, UK.
Agi Koszorus (PhD co-supervisor)
KU Leuven
CERN, Geneva 1211
Geneva, Switzerland
Undergraduates
Kunal Gupta
Indian Institute of Technology
Delhi, India
Christopher Ricketts (PhD co-supervisor)
The University of Manchester
christopher.ricketts@manchester.ac.uk
CERN, Geneva 1211
Geneva, Switzerland
Fredrik Parnefjord Gustafsson ( PhD co-supervisor)
KU Leuven
CERN, Geneva 1211
Geneva, Switzerland