Student Spotlight – Michael Planar

Michael is a seventh year graduate student working for Professor Colin Jessop. He spent a few years measuring the properties of the Higgs boson through its decay into two photons as measured by the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) at the Large Hadron Collider. He also spent a few years working on the Electromagnetic Calorimeter for the CMS. This impressive assembly of crystal and electronics allows for precise measurement of photon and electron energy in the CMS and is especially important for the analysis that Michael performs. He chose to work with Prof. Jessop and the CMS detector because they use cutting edge technology and analysis techniques. Michael spent the last 4 years living in France and working at CERN in Switzerland. He enjoys swimming, playing card/board/video games, and helping out at his family farm in Minnesota.  After graduating from the University of Notre Dame, Michael plans to move into industry where he hopes to continue developing new hardware and innovative analysis techniques.