Resume

For personal contact information, please email me at ‘employment’ at ‘seanmmcdaniel.com.’

Summary of Qualifications

• Academic achievement. Ph.D. graduate from the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University, the world-leading laboratory for rare isotope research and nuclear science education.
• Problem solving skills. Developed a sophisticated approach to data collection for each experimental data set (~100 gigabytes), as necessitated by the NSCL’s complex, interconnected collection of detectors.
• Agile learner. Swiftly learned and applied new concepts, skills, and techniques as necessitated by my research. Examples include systems engineering (experiment design), mathematics (statistical analysis), and computer science (C++, Python, and Tcl programming; data manipulation and imaging).
• Multi-disciplinary approach. Selectively applied techniques from multiple disciplines (examples above) to optimize the efficiency and quality of my research.
• Adaptive Communication. Effectively communicated complex scientific concepts to peers (at conferences, invited talks) and non-experts (NSCL outreach).

Education

Ph.D.       Michigan State University, National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory
East Lansing, Michigan
Physics, 2003 – 2011

B.S.        Linfield College
McMinnville, Oregon
Physics, 1999 – 2003

Professional experience

Graduate Research Assistant, 2006 – 2011.
Supervisor: Dr. Alexandra Gade

• Designed, coordinated, and executed my highly-complex thesis experiment at the NSCL, “The study of complementary reactions: single-proton pickup and single-proton knockout”. My successful experiment required:
  • The careful coordination of a large, diverse team of physicists, engineers, operators, and fellow students.
  • Quick thinking and rapid problem solving as experimental conditions evolved during the week span of continual data acquisition.
  • Online and offline analysis of the large (~100 gigabytes), raw data set generated by the diverse collection of detector systems.
  • Familiarity with digital and analog signal processing, complex coincidence timing, and detector systems.
  • Physical, mathematical, and statistical reasoning.
  • The design and development of software tools using, C++ (ROOT data analysis framework), Python, and Tcl.
• Participated in the design and commissioning of a new γ-ray detector called CAESAR (DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2010.09.148) . Principal areas of contribution include
  • The design and installation of CAESAR’s magnetic shielding (brainstorming, design, simulation, prototyping and refinement, and final testing)
  • The coding of a SQLite database back-end for the data acquisition system.

Teaching assistant, 2004 – 2005

• Guided students through a series of optics, electromagnetic, and mechanical experiments designed to demonstrate the physics behind everyday phenomena (~30 undergraduate students).
• Mentored students through calculus based and non-calculus based introductory physics courses.
• Clearly communicated difficult concepts to students with a non-technical background.

Invited Seminar
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 2010
Talk: A study of complementary reactions: single nucleon pickup and knockout reactions at the NSCL

Graduate Student Seminar
National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, MSU, East Lansing, Michigan 2010
Talk: Population of positive-parity states in 53Sc through one-proton knockout.

Graduate Student Seminar
National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, MSU, East Lansing, Michigan, 2010
Talk: The development of single-nucleon pickup reactions with fast, exotic beams as a spectroscopic tool.

Direct Reactions with Exotic Beams Conference
Florida State University, Tallahassee Florida, 2009
Talk: Population of positive-parity states in ⁵³Sc through one-proton knockout.

American Physical Society Division of Nuclear Physics Conference
Oakland, California, 2008
Talk: The development of single-nucleon pickup reactions with fast, exotic beams as a spectroscopic tool.

Nuclear Structure Conference
Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 2008
Poster: In beam -ray spectroscopy of the N = 32 nucleus ⁵³Sc

S. McDaniel, A. Gade, R. V. F. Janssens, D. Bazin, B. A. Brown, C. M. Campbell, M. P. Carpenter, J. M. Cook, A. N. Deacon, D.-C. Dinca, S. J. Freeman, T. Glasmacher, P. G. Hansen, B. P. Kay, P. F. Mantica, W. F. Mueller, J. R. Terry, J. A. Tostevin, and S. Zhu, Population of positive-parity states in ⁵³Sc through one-proton knockout, Phys. Rev. C 81, 024301 (2010)