Benjamin Hooberman

For More Information

• University of Illinois ATLAS Group

Education

• BA in Physics, Columbia University, 2005
• MSc in Physics, University of California at Berkeley, 2007
• PhD in Physics, University of California at Berkeley, 2009

Biography

Professor Hooberman is an experimental high energy particle physicist who studies the fundamental laws of nature using data from particle colliders, with particular interest in understanding the nature of dark matter. He has held leadership roles in the CMS and ATLAS collaborations at the Large Hadron Collider, where he directed an international team of 250 physicists as Convener of the ATLAS Supersymmetry Group and contributed to the Nobel Prize-recognized discovery of the Higgs boson. He is a recipient of the U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Award recognizing outstanding scientists early in their careers. He received his PhD in physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 2009 and his bachelor's degree from Columbia University in 2005. He is also a musician, poker enthusiast, and cat person.

Academic Positions

• Associate Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2020-present
• Affiliate Professor, Illinois Center for Advanced Studies of the Universe (ICASU), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2020-present
• Assistant Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2014-2020
• Research Associate, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, 2009-2014
• Graduate Student Research Assistant, University of California at Berkeley, 2005-2009
• Undergraduate Researcher, Columbia University, 2003-2005

Research Interests

• Searching for physics beyond the standard model at the Large Hadron Collider
• Leveraging machine learning techniques to enable scientific discoveries
• Supersymmetry and dark matter
• Cosmic ray muon imaging ("muography") and detector development
• Upgrades to the ATLAS tracking and trigger systems

Selected Articles in Journals

• I. Elsharkawy, B. Hooberman, Y. Kahn. Uncertainty quantification from ensemble variance scaling laws in deep neural networks. Mach.Learn.Sci.Tech. 6, 035040  (2025).
• ATLAS Collaboration. Search for displaced leptons in sqrt(s) =13  TeV and 13.6 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D 112, 012016 (2025).
• ATLAS Collaboration. The ATLAS Trigger System for LHC Run 3 and Trigger performance in 2022. J. Instrum. 19, P060229 (2024).
• ATLAS Collaboration. Searches for new phenomena in events with two leptons, jets, and missing transverse momentum in 139 fb⁻¹ of √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector, Eur. Phys. J. C 83, 515 (2023).
• ATLAS Collaboration (G. Aad, et al). The ATLAS Fast TracKer System. J. Instrum. 16, P07006 (2021).
• D. Belayneh, F. Carminati, A. Farbin, B. Hooberman et al. Calorimetry with deep learning: particle simulation and reconstruction for collider physics. Eur. Phys. J. C 80, 688 (2020).
• ATLAS Collaboration. Search for chargino-neutralino production using recursive jigsaw reconstruction in final states with two or three charged leptons in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s)=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D 98(9), 092012 (2018).
• ATLAS Collaboration. Search for new phenomena using the invariant mass distribution of same-flavour opposite-sign dilepton pairs in events with missing transverse momentum in sqrt(s)=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector. Eur. Phys. J. C 78(8), 625 (2018).
• ATLAS Collaboration. Search for electroweak production of supersymmetric particles in the two and three lepton final state at sqrt(s)=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Eur. Phys. J. C 78(12), 995 (2018).
• ATLAS Collaboration. Search for new phenomena in events containing a same-flavour opposite-sign dilepton pair, jets, and large missing transverse momentum in sqrt(s)=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector. Eur. Phys. J. C77(3), 144 (2017)
• ATLAS Collaboration. Search for supersymmetry in events containing a same-flavour opposite-sign dilepton pair, jets, and large missing transverse momentum in 8 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector. Eur. Phys. J. C.75(7), 318 (2015).
• CMS Collaboration. Search for physics beyond the standard model in events with two leptons, jets, and missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at 8 TeV. J. High Energy Phys. 04, 124 (2015).
• CMS Collaboration. Searches for electroweak neutralino and chargino production in channels with Higgs, Z, and W bosons in pp collisions at 8 TeV. Phys. Rev. D 90(9), 092007 (2014).
• CMS Collaboration. Search for electroweak production of charginos, neutralinos, and sleptons using leptonic final states in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV. Eur. Phys. J. C 74(9), 3036 (2014).
• CMS Collaboration. Search for top-squark pair production in the single-lepton final state in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV. Eur. Phys. J C.73(12), 2677 (2013).
• CMS Collaboration. Search for new physics in events with opposite-sign leptons, jets, and missing transverse energy in pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV. Phys. Lett. B 718, 815-840 (2013).
• CMS Collaboration. Search for electroweak production of charginos and neutralinos using leptonic final states in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TEV. J. High Energy Phys. 11, 147 (2012).
• CMS Collaboration. Search for physics beyond the standard model in events with a Z boson, jets, and missing transverse energy in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV. Phys. Lett., B 716, 260-284 (2012).
• CMS Collaboration. Search for Physics Beyond the Standard Model in Opposite-sign Dilepton Events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV. J. High Energy Phys. 06, 026 (2011).
• CMS Collaboration. Missing Transverse Energy Performance of the CMS Detector. J. Instrum. 6, P09001 (2011).
• BABAR Collaboration. Search for Charged Lepton Flavor Violation in Narrow Upsilon Decays. Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 151802 (2010).
• M. Battaglia, B. Hooberman, N. Kelley. A Study of e⁺e^- -> H⁰A⁰ Production and the Constraint on Dark Matter Density. Phys. Rev., D 78, 015021 (2008).
• B. Hooberman with M. Battaglia et al. Tracking and Vertexing with a Thin CMOS Pixel Beam Telescope. Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 593, 292 (2008).
• B. Hooberman with M. Battaglia et al. A Study of monolithic CMOS pixel sensors back-thinning and their application for a pixel beam telescope. Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 579, 675 (2007).

Articles in Conference Proceedings

• B. Hooberman (on behalf of the ATLAS collaboration). Supersymmetry searches and combinations, Proc. 56th Rencontres de Moriond on Electroweak Interactions and Unified Theories (La Thuile, Italy, 12 - 19 Mar 2022), ATL-PHYS-PROC-2022-030
• B. Hooberman (on behalf of the ATLAS collaboration). First tracking performance results from the ATLAS Fast TracKer, Proc. 2019 Connecting the Dots and Workshop on Intelligent Trackers.
• B. Hooberman, A. Farbin, G. Khattak, V. Pacela, M. Pierini, J.-R. Vlimant, M. Spiropulu, W. Wei, M. Zhang and S. Vallecorsa. Calorimetry with Deep Learning: Particle Classification, Energy Regression, and Simulation for High-Energy Physics, Deep Learning for Physical Sciences Workshop at the 31st Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) 2017
• B. Hooberman, for the CMS Collaboration. Searches for Top and Bottom Squarks in pp collisions at 8 TeV, proc. 2012 Hadron Collider Physics Symposium (HCP2012), European Physical Journal Web of Conferences 49:15012 (2013).
• B. Hooberman, for the BABAR Collaboration. Searches for Exotic Decays of the Upsilon(3S) at BABAR, proc. 2009 Lake Louise Winter Institute.
• P. Kangaslahti, T. Gaier, M. Seiffert, S. Weinreb, D. Harding, D. Dawson, M. Soria, C. Lawrence, B. Hooberman, A. Miller. Planar polarimetry receivers for Large Imaging Experiments at Q-ban, Microwave Symposium Digest, IEEE MTT-S International, 89-92, (2006).

Other Publications

• ATLAS Physics Briefing, "ATLAS probes uncharted territory with improved trigger" (2024).
• University of Illinois Press Briefing, "DOE seeds first-principles study of AI and deep learning, part of $4.3 million national initiative" (2022).
• University of Illinois Press Briefing, "Hooberman, Shelton selected for DOE Early Career Awards" (2017).
• ATLAS Physics Briefing, "ATLAS releases new results in search for weakly-interacting supersymmetric particles" (2017).

Reports

• ATLAS Collaboration. Prospects for a search for direct pair production of top squarks at the high-luminosity LHC with the ATLAS detector, ATL-PHYS-PUB-2024-001 (2024).
• ATLAS Collaboration. The ATLAS Inner Detector Trigger performance in pp collisions at 900 GeV and 13.6 TeV for LHC Run 3 operation during 2022, ATL-DAQ-PUB-2023-002 (2023).
• ATLAS Collaboration. ATLAS Phase-II Upgrade Scoping Document. CERN-LHCC-2015-020, LHCC-G-166 (2015).

Research Honors

• The 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2025)
• University of Illinois Center for Advanced Study (CAS) Associate (2022)
• Department of Energy Early Career Research Award (2017)

Recent Courses Taught

• PHYS 212 - University Physics: Elec & Mag
• PHYS 225 - Relativity & Math Applications
• PHYS 398 DAP - Soph/Junr Special Topics Phys
• PHYS 435 - Electromagnetic Fields I
• PHYS 496 - Communicating in Physics