James W. Dolen, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Physics

Introduction

James (Jim) Dolen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Physics at PNW. His research and teaching focus on improving our understanding of the universe.

Research Overview

Professor Dolen works to discover and measure the particles that make up our universe. He collaborates on projects at both Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) and at CERN. He is currently working to build particle detector devices to be installed at CERN and to use these devices, along with machine learning classification algorithms, to study and discover new particles.

“As a graduate student, I was fortune enough to be member of the team that discovered the Higgs Boson particle. A very exciting time in particle physics!”

Select Publications

CMS Collaboration including J. Dolen, “Search for resonant top quark pair production in proton-proton collisions at √s= 13 TeV”, Journal of High Energy Physics 2019 (04), 31, (2019)

CMS Collaboration including J. Dolen, “Search for a W’ boson decaying to a vector-like quark and a top or bottom quark in the all-jets final state”, Journal of High Energy Physics 2019 (3), 127, (2019)

CMS Collaboration including J. Dolen, “Search for leptoquarks coupled to third-generation quarks in proton-proton collisions at √s= 13 TeV”, Physical Review Letters 121 (24), 241802, (2018)

Teaching Focus

Professor Dolen’s teaching focuses on both the forefront of modern physics research (quantum mechanics, cosmology, and particle and nuclear physics) and on classical concepts such as force and energy. He also includes computational projects in his courses, as computer programming and machine learning are increasingly becoming critical components of careers in science and engineering.

Previous Roles

Co-Faculty Mentor – PNW QuarkNet Center (current)