Ricky Egeland, MSU Physics Graduate Student

Contact Info

Name: Ricky Egeland
Telephone (office ext.): 3180
Telephone (skype): (612) 326-5362
E-mail

Introduction

I entered the MSU physics graduate program in the Fall of 2011 and am pursuing a PhD with research in solar physics. I received my B.S. in physics in 2003 from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities followed by seven years of software development work for the Compact Muon Solenoid project at CERN. I left CERN in 2010 and worked briefly at the Observatório Nacional in Rio de Janeiro before coming to Montana to resume my studies.

Curriculum Vitae

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Publication List

As a primary author

A. Sanchez-Hernandez et al. “From toolkit to framework-the past and future evolution of PhEDEx”; Proc. CHEP12 Computing for High Energy Physics, New York City, USA; J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. (pending) (2012)
R. Egeland, C-H. Huang, P. Rossman, P. Sundarrajan, T. Wildish “The PhEDEx next-gen website”; Proc. CHEP12 Computing for High Energy Physics, New York City, USA; J. Phys. Conf: Conf. Ser. (pending) (2012)
T. Chwalek et al. “No file left behind – monitoring transfer latencies in PhEDEx”; Proc. CHEP12 Computing for High Energy Physics, New York City, USA; J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. (pending) (2012)
R. Egeland, T. Wildish, C. Huang “PhEDEx Data Service”; Proc. CHEP09 Computing for High Energy Physics, Prague, Czech Republic; J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 219
R. Egeland, T. Wildish, S. Metson “Data transfer infrastructure for CMS data taking”; Proc. ACAT08, Advanced Computing and Analysis Techniques, Erice, Italy; Proceedings of Science PoS(ACAT08)033 (2008)
R. Egeland et al. “DataBase requirements for the CMS ECAL”; CMS internal note IN-2005/ 029 (2005)

As contributing author

The CMS Collaboration “Observation of a new boson at a mass of 125 GeV with the CMS experiment at the LHC”; Physics Letters B (2012)
S. Metson, D. Bonacorsi, M. Dias Ferreira, R. Egeland “SiteDB: Marshalling people and re- sources available to CMS”; J. Phys.: Conf. Ser 219 (2010)
A. Fanfani et al.“Distributed Analysis in CMS”; CERN CMS Note, Journal of Grid Computing Vol 8, Num 2 (2010)
G. Organtini et al. “The CMS ECAL Database Services for Detector Control and Monitoring”; Proc. CHEP09 Computing for High Energy Physics, Prague, Czech Republic; J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 219
N. Magini et al. “The CMS data transfer test environment in preparation for LHC data taking”; Proc. IEEE Dresden 2008, Dresden, Germany; Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Re- cord, 2008. NSS’08. IEEE (2008)
L. Tuura et al. “Scaling CMS data transfer system for LHC start-up”; Proc. CHEP07 Comput- ing for High Energy Physics, Victoria, Canada; J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 119 072030 (2008)
S. Metson et al. “CMS offline web tools”; Proc. CHEP07 Computing for High Energy Physics, Victoria Canada; J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 119 082007 (2008)
A. Delgado Peris et al. “Data Location, Transfer and Bookkeeping in CMS”; Proc. of the Had- ron Collider Physics Symposium 2007; Nuclear Physics B - Proceedings Supplements Vols 177- 178, March 2008, p. 279-280 (2008)
The CMS Collaboration “The CMS experiment at the CERN LHC”; Journal of Instrumenta- tion vol. 3 no.08 (2008)
F. Cavallari et al. “CMS ECAL intercalibration of ECAL crystals using laboratory measurements”; CMS Note (2006)
E. Auffray et al. “CMS ECAL Barrel channel numbering”; CMS internal note IN-2005/021 (2005)
D. Bailleux et al. “Hamamatsu APD for CMS ECAL: Quality Insurance”; Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A, Vol. 518 No. 1 (2004)
A. Kuznetsov et al. “Radiation hard avalanche photodiodes for CMS ECAL”; Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., A, Vol. 504 (2003)

Research Interests

At the time of this writing I have not selected a thesis topic or begun any program of research, but here are some of the things that interest me as possibilities at MSU and from previous experience.

Large-scale scientific computing. Every sub-field of science is transitioning into a new era where increases in data volume necessitate new approaches to data analysis, as well as opening up new possibilities for discovery. At MSU, I am interested in finding ways to use expansive datasets such as from the SDO mission to do large-scale statistical studies that were not possible in previous decades.
Acceleration of particles by the sun. The sun has the largest and most active magnetic field in the solar system and is the best place for us to study natural particle acceleration processes in detail. The same events which are responsible for impressive solar flares and coronal mass ejections are responsible for accelerating particles anywhere from 1 MeV up to the GeV scale. These mechanisms are likely analogous to those which accelerate ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, where kinetic energies exceeding 10^20 eV have been observed.
Coronal mass ejections, solar wind, and the space environment. Coronal mass ejections are solar events whose effects may be felt here on Earth. The acceleration of asteroid-sized amounts of material into space and the subsequent impact with the Earth's magnetic field is responsible for the auroras as well as for radio and satellite disturbances which have an impact on our modern way of life.
Structure of the heliosphere. The interaction between the heliosphere and the interstellar medium is only recently being made available to direct observation. Measurements from the still-going Voyager probes and energetic neutral particle measurements from the IBIX spacecraft have brought forth new questions about the size, shape and structure of the outer edge of our Sun's influence.
The solar cycle. The roughly 11-year solar cycle modulates many solar phenomenon including the number of sunspots, the solar irradiance, as well as the frequency of flares and CMEs. What is responsible for this cycle, and for the subtle variations of it? What has its impact been on the history of the Earth and the Solar System?
Exoplanet remote sensing. Kepler and other exoplanet efforts are expanding the catalog of known worlds. Some planets with wide orbits have already been imaged, and the atmospheres of eclipsing planets can be investigated via spectral analysis of the host star. We are just beginning to understand what variety of worlds are possible in our galaxy.

Other Interests

When I'm not working on physics or writing some computer program I like to...

Play guitar. I play mostly classical guitar, though I dabble in blues, jazz, rock, folk and country as well as Brazilian styles bossa nova and choro. I also like to experiment with a lot of different sounds, and for this I have a Brian Moore MIDI guitar and tons of software instruments like those from the Native Instruments Komplete 8 package.
Go outside. Montana is great for this. I like biking, hiking, and canoeing, though I suspect Minnesota was better for canoeing.
Travel. I've lived in Switzerland and Brazil and seen a lot of nice places along with my wonderful wife, Patricia. I suspect we'll see a lot more interesting places as time goes on.
Take photos. When I'm outside or traveling I like to take pictures. Sometimes I even take good ones. When I do, I put them on my flickr photostream. A few random pictures are shown below.