Valentina Dutta reappointment Letter

Recommendation

Valentina is on track to be an outstanding faculty member. She is clearly above the bar for reappointment. Her research is timely and well-aligned with the department's goals. As an assistant professor, Valentina has maintained her productive track record with the CMS experiment. She has quickly become a critical component of the detector development project that Manfred and I are working on. Additionally, she has also successfully established CMU as a member of the Light Dark Matter eXperiment (LDMX). Her work has been recognized with significant leadership roles within both the CMS and LDMX collaborations.

Valentina's work with CMS focuses on searching for new phenomena using rare processes involving known Standard Model particles. This is a wise strategy, as it allows for the first measurements of processes predicted by our established theory while also constraining potential sources of new physics.

Valentina is an expert in the experimental signature of tau leptons. She is leveraging this expertise to search for new physics. She is currently extending the standard tau identification algorithms at CMS to be sensitive to long-lived particles that decay into taus, currently a hot topic within the field. Identifying displaced taus poses significant computational challenges and is one area where machine learning is paying off.

I work very closely with Valentina on the CMS calorimeter upgrade project. In the lab, she is knowledgeable, effective, and fun to work with. Valentina has taken a leading role in the electrical testing of modules we are producing at CMU. She is also leading the development of a local database infrastructure that will be essential for quality control during production.

LDMX is a proposed accelerator-based search for “light" (i.e.: not heavy) dark matter. This category of dark matter is well-motivated and complementary to dark matter searches at the LHC. LDMX is also a natural fit for us at CMU, as the exact same technology used in the CMS calorimeter upgrade will be used in LDMX. Given the recent decadal particle physics planning exercise, I think it is very-likely that this project will go forward and could potentially provide a new direction for others in the group.

In summary, Valentina has proven herself to be an asset to our department and the broader scientific community. She is well on her way to becoming a leading figure in her field. I have no doubt that her continued contributions will significantly advance both the CMS and LDMX projects. I strongly support her reappointment.

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Valentina is on track to be an outstanding faculty member. She is clearly above the bar for reappointment. Her research is timely and well-aligned with the department's goals. As an assistant professor, Valentina has maintained her productive track record with the CMS experiment. She has quickly become a critical component of the detector development project that Manfred and I are working on. Additionally, she has also successfully established CMU has a member of the Light Dark Matter eXperiment (LDMX). Her work have been recognized with significant leadership roles within both the CMS and LDMX collaborations.

Valentina's work with CMS focuses on searching of new phenomena using rare processes involving known Standard Model particles. This is a wise strategy, as it allows for the first measurements of processes predicted by our established theory while also constraining potential sources of new physics.

Valentina is an expert in the experimental signature of tau leptons. She is leveraging this expertise to search for new physics. She is currently extending the standard tau identification algorithms at CMS to be sensitive to long-lived that decay to into taus, currently a hot topic within the field. Identifying displaced taus poses significant computational challenges and is one area where machine learning is paying off.

I work very closely with Valentina on the CMS calorimeter upgrade project. In the lab, she is knowledge, effective, and fun to work with. Valentine has taken a leading role in the electrical testing of the module we are producing at CMU. She is also leading a team in the development of a local database infrastructure that will be essential for quality control during production.

LDMX is a proposed accelerator-based search for “light" dark matter. "Light" here meaning not heavy, with masses roughly, between that of the electron and proton. This category of dark matter is well-motivated and complimentary with the dark matter searches at the LHC. Its also a natural fit for us at CMU, at the exact same technology used in the calorimeter upgrade will be used in LDMX. Given the recent decadal particle physics planning exercise, I think it is very-likely that this project will go forward and could potentially provide a new direction for others in the group.

In summary, Valentina has proven herself to be an asset to our department and the broader scientific community. She is well on her way to becoming a leading figure in her field. I have no doubt that her continued contributions will significantly advance both the CMS and LDMX projects. I strongly support her reappointment.