Ugur Akgun
Research Interests
I have two different research areas: Experimental High Energy Physics and Computational Biophysics.
In Experimental High Energy Physics, my main focus is development of new detector technologies. The students working with me are actively involved in hadronic calorimeter construction and upgrade studies for the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project. As a part of CMS Hadronic Forward Calorimeter upgrades, we are working on Photomultiplier Tube characterization in our optical laboratory. The other project we pursue, is developing radiation hard scintillating glass for CMS Hadronic Endcap calorimeter upgrades.
My second research area is Computational Biophysics studies on membrane proteins. The students working on these projects develop computational skills on modeling proteins from X-Ray diffraction data, and performing data analysis. The computational physics experiments on these models reveal their working mechanism and details of their function. The information obtained from these studies is used for computer aided drug design efforts.
The students working for me are part of international efforts and present their work in collaboration meetings as well as national conferences.
Ugur Akgun
Recent Publications:
- "The Periplasmic Vestibule Plays Important Role for Solute Recruitment, Selectivity, and Gating in Rh/Amt/MEP Superfamily", Proceedings of National Academy of Science, PNAS 2011, 108 (10) 3970-3975
- "Forward neutron production at the Fermilab Main Injector", Physical Review D 83, 012002, 2011
- "Boron and Thermal Neutron Interactions on Borosilica Window Photomultiplier Tubes", Journal of Instrumentation, JINST 5 P08005, 2010
- "CMS Hadronic EndCap Calorimeter Upgrade Studies for SLHC Pterphenyl Deposited Quartz Plate Calorimeter Prototype", IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Volume 57, Issue 2, 754-759, 2010
- “Detector Upgrade R&D of the CMS Hadronic Endcap and Forward Calorimeters”, Proceedings of IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, 2009.
- "P Terphenyl Deposited Quartz Plate Calorimeter Prototype", Proceedings of IEEE - 2008 Nuclear Science and Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, 2008
- "CMS Hadronic EndCap Calorimeter Upgrade Studies for SLHC - Cerenkov Light Collection from Quartz Plates", IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol 55, Issue 2, 734-740, 2008.
