Jennifer Anne Thomas facts for kids

Jennifer Anne Thomas is a British scientist who studies tiny particles. She is a professor at University College London. She helped create new tools to find and study these particles. In 2018, she won the Michael Faraday medal and prize for her amazing work on how neutrinos change.

Becoming a Scientist

Jennifer Thomas studied at the University of London. In 1981, she earned her first degree in science.

She then went to the University of Oxford. In 1983, she earned her PhD, which is a high-level degree. Her research was about how heavy quarks break down into other particles.

Exploring the World of Particles

After her studies, Jennifer Thomas worked at several big science centers. From 1983 to 1985, she did research at Imperial College and DESY in Germany.

From 1985 to 1988, she was a fellow at CERN in Switzerland. She worked on a special camera called the Time Projection Chamber. This camera helped scientists study particles in the ALEPH experiment.

She also worked at the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Germany. Later, she joined the Superconducting Super Collider in Texas, USA.

Studying Neutrinos

In 1994, Jennifer Thomas returned to Oxford. She started working on an experiment called MINOS. She later brought this experiment to University College London in 1996. Since 2010, she has led the MINOS team.

She helped expand the MINOS experiment. This allowed scientists to search for special particles called "sterile neutrinos." These are a type of neutrino that don't interact much with other matter.

Her main work now is studying neutrinos. She helps lead the MINOS/MINOS+ experiment. She is also part of the NEMO-III and SuperNEMO experiments. Here, she studies how neutrinos might break down in special ways. She also looks at how neutrinos might behave differently from their antimatter partners.

Recently, she has been working on the CHIPS experiment. This project aims to build a flexible and affordable neutrino detector. It uses special light called Cherenkov radiation and is built in flooded mines.

Awards and Special Honors

Jennifer Thomas has received many important awards for her work.

In 2011, she was made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE). This is a special honor from the Queen of England.

In 2017, she became a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very respected group of top scientists in the UK. She is also a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society.

In 2018, she won the Michael Faraday Medal and Prize. This award is given for outstanding work in experimental physics.