PhD student, Physics
Faculty advisor: Tulika Bose
Elise Chavez is a PhD student in physics with dual interests in high energy physics and research software engineering. She works on experiments using data from the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector in the Large Hadron Collider, probing the laws of physics to find the interesting and unexpected.
Elise specifically looks for a particle called a vector-like lepton, which is hypothesized but not proven to exist. If it does exist, physicists expect it to help explain the differences between elementary particles, how particles differ in their interactions with one another, and more. Elise uses data analysis software to determine whether the CMS collects enough evidence of vector-like leptons that could be analyzed to properly search for them.
“New particles are always fun,” Elise said. “But it also opens the door for so much more. If we can pin down which models we should be looking at, [that] can also help us explore other parts of physics as well.”
Her interest in software engineering blossomed from her experience as a graduate student researcher and wide interests in science. She designs and troubleshoots software that supports scientific research across disciplines and contributes to software for the next planned upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider, which will allow scientists to collect 10 times the data that they can currently.
“When you have that much data, it’s really difficult to analyze it,” Elise said. “You’re either going to spend forever waiting for it or you’re never going to be able to read it.” Her software projects are aimed at making analysis on large-scale data sets easier and faster.
Elise was supported with an Advanced Opportunity Fellowship during her second year of graduate school, and in 2025-2026 will use the final year of fellowship support as a dissertator. She said the early year of fellowship support was beyond helpful for her to take the time to focus on her research and coursework.
“I’m very thankful and happy that I was able to have that fellowship opportunity. It benefitted me a lot and still is benefitting me,” she said of the WARF support. “I hope that they continue for other scientists of other kinds, especially for the sciences that don’t get as much support.”