Group Members

Reina’s current research interests are in understanding the particle nature of dark matter and neutrinos, and role of symmetry in fundamental physics. When not working with her fantastic team listed here, she can be found in Underground Laboratories, teaching, or skiing.

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James received his Ph.D. in condensed matter physics physics from Kent State University, but has been working in particle and nuclear physics ever since.  He spend a number of years as a postdoc and scientist at Yale making every kind of noble liquid detector before traveling to England to lecture.  He’s now back at Yale largely working on detector design and development projects with a bit of simulation work thrown in for good measure.  James is an enthusiastic skater and is on the board of directors for the the Yale Figure Skating Club.

Jay received his Ph.D. from Stony Brook University in 2015 and joined the group shortly after. He is currently working on DM-Ice experiment, participating in an effort to commission DM-Ice NaI(Tl) crystals into KIMS crystal array in Yangyang, South Korea. He loves to read books, listen to music, and watch Yankees beat Red Sox.

Danielle joined the Maruyama group in February 2017. Her primary research interests lie in understanding the intersection of particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology.  Following her graduate work in dark matter direct detection with the SuperCDMS experiment at UC Berkeley, Danielle joined the CUORE experiment in the search for neutrinoless double-beta decay.  In her spare time, Danielle enjoys reading, writing, music, and people.

Estella joined the Maruyama group in 2014. In addition to working on dark matter direct detection, she also searched for exoplanets as an undergraduate, working with Kepler Telescope data. Now she is back on the dark matter search, working on the current phase of the DM-Ice experiment. When she is not doing physics, Estella likes to dance, go see plays and watch good movies.

A native of Austin, Texas, Chris joined the group in 2014. He is currently working on the CUORE experiment on both hardware for the Detector Calibration System and on Monte Carlo simulations to study the CUORE detectors. He is also a Scientific Teaching Fellow at Yale and has done extensive educational outreach at schools and to underrepresented minorities in physics. In New Haven, Chris is an avid theatergoer and is a member of Yale’s Tae Kwon Do team.

William graduated from Wake Forest University in the Spring of 2015 with a B.S. in Physics and Computer Science. As an undergraduate he worked in computational biophysics, investigating the effects of chemotherapeutics on DNA repair proteins in humans. He also worked with the MAJORANA Collaboration on hardware involved in their neutrinoless double beta decay experiment. William joined the group in Summer 2015 and is working on DM-Ice. In his free time, he enjoys playing the trumpet and making obscure Seinfeld references.

Byron is a sophomore physics major in Yale College. He joined the Maruyama group during the Summer of 2016, and he is working on calibration simulations for the CUORE Detector calibration system. During his free time, Byron enjoys exercising and listening to 70’s music.

Katie is a sophomore physics major in Yale College. She joined the Maruyama group during the summer of 2017 and is working on the CUORE collaboration. In the past, she has worked in Chile on exoplanet research and has interned at NASA Headquarters in their international relations office. Outside of physics and astronomy, Katie enjoys playing clarinet in the marching band on campus and long-distance running.