Abbey Barnard

Background

About Abbey Barnard

I am a second-year Particle Physics DPhil student at The University of Oxford (Keble College) where I'm part of the Accelerator Neutrino group and supervised by Dr Kirsty Duffy. I am an IOP Bell Burnell Scholar, a fund that assists graduate students from underrepresented groups. I am a member of the MicroBooNE Collaboration at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) near Chicago, Illinois, where I'm researching neutrino interactions on argon (the material inside our detector!). I am the Coordinator of the MicroBooNE Early Careers (MEC) group, the community of early career scientists on the experiment. I'm currently based at Fermilab, where I'm staying for a year to undertake my Long-Term Attachment. In addition to MicroBooNE, I am working on the Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND), also at Fermilab. I'm interested in the detector's Data Acquisition (DAQ) system, a crucial component for capturing and processing the experimental data. I work as a DAQ expert, taking shifts and assisting control room shifters to fix DAQ-specific issues. Before coming to Oxford in 2023, I did my MPhys in Physics at Lancaster University. I worked on the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) researching the behaviour of neutrinos produced in the Earth's upper atmosphere, one of the first things DUNE will be able to study when it becomes operational at the end of the decade. In 2022, I was a Summer Student at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, where I worked on the ATLAS Experiment characterising silicon pixel detectors for the Inner Tracker in preparation for the upgrade to High-Luminosity LHC. I am passionate about teaching, outreach, and engagement, particularly for underrepresented groups. I participate in outreach activities for the Department of Physics, am an ambassador for the Institute of Physics (IOP) Limit Less campaign, and represent London and the South East on the IOP Student Community Panel. I am a Fermilab Student & Postdoc Association (FSPA) officer, where I support the community of early career researchers at Fermilab. When I'm not doing physics, you'll probably catch me listening to or playing music! I collect records, and play the bass guitar. I love to go bouldering when I can, learn a new language on Duolingo and enjoy a pint out with friends at our local bar.