The LHC Physics Center (LPC) at Fermilab (http://lpc.fnal.gov/) seeks applications for the  “Meenakshi Narain Graduate Scholars at the LPC  (LPC-GS) 2025”. This program supports exceptional PhD Students from US CMS institutions to spend a year at Fermilab pursuing thesis research opportunities at the LPC. The preferred starting date for the appointment as a LPC Graduate Scholar will be Jan 1, 2025 for a duration of one year. These dates might be adjusted in individual cases, at the discretion of the LPC coordinators.

Students will be supervised locally by a senior mentor resident at the LPC, who needs to be identified at the time of the application. The Narain Graduate Scholars for 2025 will be selected based on a competitive process. The proposals will be rated based on merit, uniqueness, creativity, and relevance to CMS and LPC.

The applications must include a research proposal and three letters of recommendation, including a letter from the PhD advisor and a letter from the mentor. The due date for the LPC-GS 2025 program applications and supporting letters is Friday, September 13, 2024 at 11:59 PM US CDT. Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

The details of the eligibility criteria and application requirements are given below. Applications will be accepted online at https://academicprogramsonline.org/ajo/programs/27930

The LPC serves primarily as a resource and physics analysis hub for several hundred physicists at US institutions in the CMS collaboration. The LPC offers a vibrant community of CMS scientists from US and overseas institutions that play leading roles in analysis of data, in the definition and refinement of physics objects, in detector commissioning and operations, and in the design, development, and construction of the detector upgrade. There is close and frequent collaboration with the Fermilab theory community. The LPC provides outstanding computing resources and software support personnel. The proximity of the CMS Tier-1 and the CMS Remote Operations Center at Fermilab allows critical real-time connections to the experiment. Fermilab technical facilities support detector instrumentation developments. The LPC also offers educational workshops and tutorials in analysis techniques and software development, and organizes conferences and seminar series. For a full range of LPC activities please refer to: http://lpc.fnal.gov.

In 2023, the LPC Graduate Scholars program was renamed in honor of the late Professor Meenakshi Narain, who fought for and attained the funds for this program when she was LPC co-coordinator. 

Questions about the Narain Graduate Scholars program may be directed to the LPC coordinators:

Bo Jayatilaka and Kevin Black (boj@fnal.gov, kblack@hep.wisc.edu)

======= Link to program website: http://lpc.fnal.gov/programs/graduate-scholars/ ;

Eligibility Requirements: 

Applicants must be enrolled full-time in a Qualified Graduate Program with the Ph.D. as their degree objective at a member institution of the USCMS collaboration. The list of collaborating USCMS institutions is available at http://uscms.org/uscms_at_work/collaboration/collaboration_board.shtml. At the time of application, applicants must have obtained the Ph.D. candidacy at their home institution, and must have established a defined graduate thesis project with a defined PhD thesis advisor. Applicants are NOT eligible to apply if one, or any combination, of the following describes their graduate education status:

Application Material: 

Start Date and Duration: 

The nominal starting date for the appointment as a Narain Graduate Scholar will be Jan 1, 2025 for a duration of one year. The start date is negotiable, but should be no later than March 2025. Renewal is possible but requires a new proposal. The maximum amount of time as CMS LPC-GS is two years.

Financial Support: