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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Penny received her Ph.D. in experimental particle physics from the University of Virginia.  After the Ph.D. she worked as a Caltech Postdoctoral Scholar at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA to analyze spacecraft data from solar energetic particle measurements.  She then transitioned to the aerospace industry in El Segundo, CA to work on instrument development and analysis for suborbital sounding rocket campaigns.  Since returning to the Eastern U.S. and arriving at Yale, she has worked on RF detection measurements and simulation.  In her free time she can be found running or spending time near the water.

Govinda received his Ph.D from Sejong University in COSINE-100 experiment in spring 2020. After his Ph.D, he joined the University of California, San Diego as a postdoctoral scholar before joining Reina’s group and working in the nEXO collaboration to develop cryogenic electronics for nEXO charge readout system. Govinda is excited to endeavor toward a research goal with DM-ICE and COSINE collaboration beyond testing the DAMA/LIBRA. Besides research, Govinda loves to read novels and enjoy elevated hiking and bike rides on hilly country roads.

Mike received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2020.  His thesis work was on the search for neturinoless double beta decay in Liquid Xenon with the full dataset of EXO-200 and R&D efforts for the next generation experiment, nEXO.  He joined the Maruyama Group in May 2020, where he works on the HAYSTAC experiment searching for Dark Matter axions using a resonant microwave cavity enhanced through the use of quantum technology.  

Pranava got his Ph.D. from Illinois Institute of Technology in 2019 in Experimental Particle Physics and joined the group as he was finishing up writing his thesis. His research is currently primarly focused on finding the fundamental properties of neutrino. On CUORE/CUPID, he has been leading the Muon Tagger protoyping efforts in addition to working on high level efficiency calculations in search for the neutrinoless double beta decay with the CUORE data. 

Jorge received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in Experimental Astroparticle Physics in Summer 2021, where he worked on data analysis and simulation for the Askaryan Radio Array (ARA) experiment. He joined the the group in July 2021, and currently he is working on the CUORE/CUPID experiments, which search for neutrinoless double beta decay. Outside of physics, Jorge enjoys photography and salsa dancing.

Yuqi is a postdoc primarily working on developing single-photon detection using Rydberg atoms for the search of dark matter axions in a mass range higher than what the HAYSTAC experiment is sensitive to. Prior to joining the group 2021, she studied atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics in Prof. Dave DeMille’s group and built an experiment to create a reservoir of ultracold Rb atoms with laser cooling as an effort towards studying collisions between atoms and polar molecules in the ultracold temperature regime. She looks forward to applying tools and technical skills from AMO physics to search for dark matter and study fundamental physics. Photo shows Yuqi during the celebration following her thesis defense (courtesy of Sid).

Xiran did her undergraduate in the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and her master’s at the University of Michigan. She is now a rising second-year Ph.D. student in Physics at Yale. She joined the Maruyama Group in Feb 2021, where she works on the HAYSTAC experiment searching for Dark Matter axions. In her free time, she likes to read and play the piano.

Sumita graduated from UC Berkeley in the spring of 2016 with a joint B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Materials Science and Engineering. Sumita started at Yale in June 2016 in Charles Ahn’s group doing MBE with SRO then moved around in Michel Devoret’s quantum information lab and David Moore’s AMO lab before settling into HAYSTAC in June 2019. Outside of lab, Sumita is a member of the Yale Climbing Team, one of two graduate liasons for the undergraduate Women in Physics, a graduate affiliate of Timothy Dwight College, and a volunteer for other outreach organizations such as the Girls’ Science Investigations.

Sophia completed her BS in Physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2020 and began Yale’s Physics PhD program Fall 2020. She is currently working with the Maruyama group on COSINE-100, a dark matter direct detection experiment aimed at studying WIMPs. In her free time, Sophia likes gaming, music, and playing with her dog.

Claire graduated from Yale University with a B.S. in Intensive Physics in 2021. Throughout her undergraduate years, she worked on the Mu2e experiment at Fermilab and the ATLAS experiment at CERN with Professor Demers. She spent her gap year doing research and lab management with Professor Maruyama’s HAYSTAC group before being accepting into the physics Ph.D. programs in the fall. She continues to pursue particle physics as a Yale graduate student. In her spare time, Claire loves making pottery, reading sci-fi and fantasy books, playing video games, and spending time outdoors. 

Ridge graduated from Rice University in 2018 with a B.S. in Physics and Mathematics. He joined the Maruyama Lab and CUORE in the summer of 2020, and has been working primarily on studying the detector response to seismic activity. Outside of work, he spends his time reading, swimming, and trying to cook.

Annie is a sophomore physics major in Ezra Stiles college working on HAYSTAC RAY. Off science hill she enjoys rooting for the Yankees, listening to music, and knitting. 

James officially joined Wright lab in June 2020, but has been deeply involved with the lab community since May 2017 during the construction of PROSPECT. Since then he has expanded his involvment in the lab and provides engineering/technical support for the APC, ATLAS, CUORE, CUPID, DUNE, MAD, and Project 8, as well as the next iteration of PROSPECT (PROSPECT-II). In his dwindling spare time he is working on refinishing his log cabin. When he can he enjoys hiking and disappearing into the woods.