Nikhef physicist Niels Tuning has been appointed professor by special appointment at Maastricht University. Tuning is affiliated with the LHCb experiment at CERN.
Tunings appointment takes effect on August 1 for a term of five years. He is based at CERN and visits the Netherlands frequently for research and teaching.
Niels Tuning (Amsterdam, 1973) studied physics at the University of Amsterdam, where he also earned his Ph.D. As a physicist representing Nikhef, he is affiliated with the LHCb experiment at CERN, which studies differences between matter and antimatter in the LHC accelerator.
LHCb is one of the four large detectors at CERN that study collisions in the LHC accelerator. The experiment specializes in studying particles and antiparticles containing so-called beauty quarks. These differences are relevant to the question of why the universe, since the Big Bang, contains matter but not antimatter.
Tuning’s appointment in Maastricht is aimed at strengthening the contribution that the young GWFP (gravitational waves and fundamental physics) group already makes to LHCb. As of this year, Maastricht University has become an independent partner in the LHCb project.
Niels Tuning will collaborate with the Maastricht LHCb group on detector development, analysis of measurements and phenomenology, bridging the gap between theory and experiment. He will also teach there.
Tuning has extensive experience in experimental particle physics. He previously served for several years as physics coordinator for the LHCb detector in Geneva, playing a central role in the experiment.
