Education
- Ph.D. (Physics) University of Wisconsin–Madison
- May 2012
- Advisor: Matt Herndon
- Thesis topic: A search for exotic particles decaying to WZ in pp collisions at 7 TeV
- B.S. Wittenberg University
- Springfield, Ohio
- May 2006
- Majors in physics and French language & literature
- Summa Cum Laude
- Departmental honors in physics
- Thesis topic: Influencing dynamics in neural networks
- School for International Training
- Dakar, Senegal, West Africa
- Spring 2005
- Conducted independent research on the relative importance of national, ethnic, socioeconomic, and gender identities to residents of Dakar through interviews and participant observation.
Employment Experience
- Server Systems Engineer
- Epic
- Designed and maintained high-performance databases for medical records
- Advised customers on system monitoring and scalability
- Research Assistant
- UW–Madison
- 2007–2012
- Member of the CMS collaboration (3000+ physicists) at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), Geneva, Switzerland
- Made significant independent contributions to a 10-member global (U.S., Switzerland, Croatia) analysis team as the sole UW collaborator
- Designed analysis and validation software in C++ and Python (see Programming Experience)
- Presented weekly analysis reviews in PowerPoint to group of 10+ people and occasionally to wider CMS groups via video conference
- Lecturer
- UW–Whitewater
- 2010–2011
- Instructor of record for three sections of a tutorial-based introductory physics course for education majors and one section of a traditional algebra-based introductory course
- Used online learning management system, online homework engine, and electronic response system
- Highly rated in student evaluations (avg. 4.8/5.0)
- Teaching Assistant
- UW–Madison
- 2006, 2009
- Facilitated discussion sections and lab exercises for first-semester introductory physics courses, both calculus and non-calculus based
Programming Experience
- Web Applications
- Developed an internal Stack Overflow-style Q&A site for Epic staff using Python/Django, based on the open source OSQA project
- Monitored feedback to provide prompt fixes and feature enhancements to meet the needs of the user community
- Muon Trigger Validation
- Developed a suite of tools in C++ for testing trigger software critical to the collaboration, integrating it into the CMS software framework
- Provided validation reports for weekly software releases
- Diagnosed and resolved software issues in new releases
- Extended the package’s capabilities on-demand to perform urgent studies of unexpected behavior
- Physics Analysis Framework
- Designed and maintained the C++ and Python tools used by a 10-member analysis team
- Structured software for parallel analysis of terabyte-scale datasets on the global CMS computing grid
- Wrote well-documented and readable code that could be understood and extended by others on the team
- Muon Trigger Isolation Optimization
- Used multivariate analysis in ROOT to optimize isolation thresholds in the CMS muon trigger
- Proposed modifications to the collaboration, laying groundwork for significant redesign of isolated triggers
- RootPlot
- http://packages.python.org/rootplot/
- Created an open-source Python project providing tools to ease the process of producing high-quality output from ROOT
- Managed contributions from an active user community
- Developed a matplotlib interface for ROOT
- Designed a flexible and intuitive command-line interface to generate images from ROOT histograms, replacing common workflows relying on custom macros
- RootPy
- http://ndawe.github.com/rootpy/
- Contributed to a more ambitious open-source project to extend the capabilities of ROOT’s Python interface
- Lead designer for the plotting and root2matplotlib modules
- Developed documentation
- Implemented unit tests
- jeff.klukas.net
- Used as a testing ground for site design using modern web standards, font technologies, and design principles
- Currently powered by Octopress, using Jekyll, HTML5, and SASS in an adaptive design, hosted on Github
Skills
- Certifications
- Junior level Linux certification (LPIC-101)
- Certified in Caché system management for Epic installations
- Global languages
- English (native)
- French (advanced)
- German (novice)
- Computer languages
- Python
- C++
- UNIX shell scripting
- HTML5/CSS3
- TeX/LaTeX
- M/MUMPS
- Applications
- ROOT (statistics software)
- matplotlib
- CVS/Subversion/Git/Mercurial
- Sphinx
- Operating systems
- Scientific Linux
- AIX
- HP-UX
- Mac OS X
- Windows
Grants, Honors, Certificates, & Awards
- Young Scientist Communication Grant
- 2012
- Awarded to participants at the 2011 US LHC Users’ Organization Annual Meeting to graduate students whose talks showed exceptional ability to communicate with the public
- Traveled with senior scientists on an annual trip to Washington, D.C. to speak with members of Congress about funding for science
- CIRTL Network Exchange Fellow
- 2010
- Traveled to UC–Boulder to present research work in both teaching and physics
- Funded by the Center for Integration of Research, Teaching, & Learning
- Vilas Travel Grant
- 2009
- UW–Madison
- Awarded for travel to the CERN laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland
- Delta Certificate in Research, Teaching, & Learning
- 2009
- UW–Madison
- Recognizing experience in educational research and knowledge of foundational scholarship on teaching and learning
- Emanuel R. Piore Award
- 2007
- UW–Madison
- Recognizing top score on the physics graduate qualifying exam
Selected Publications
- Search for exotic particles decaying to the WZ final state with the CMS Experiment
- The CMS Collaboration
- 2012
- Pending collaboration approval for submission to Physical Review Letters
- Search for W’ (or techni-rho) to WZ
- The CMS Collaboration
- CMS Physics Analysis Summary CMS-PAS-EXO-11-041
- 2011
- Measurement of the WW, WZ, and ZZ cross sections at CMS
- The CMS Collaboration
- CMS Physics Analysis Summary CMS-PAS-EXP-11-010
- 2011
- Search for Technicolor with the CMS experiment
- The CMS Collaboration
- CMS Physics Analysis Summary CMS-PAS-EXO-09-007
- 2009
- Connectivity and dynamics in local cortical networks
- John Beggs, Jeffrey Klukas, and Wei Chen
- In Handbook of Brain Connectivity, pages 91–116
- Springer Berlin / Heidelberg
- 2007
Full high-energy physics publication list (100+): http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+klukas
Talks
- Diboson Studies Performed with the CMS Detector
- Jeff Klukas
- US LHC Users’ Organization Annual Meeting
- 5 November 2011
- Computing at the Large Hadron Collider
- Jeff Klukas
- CHTC Showcase (Center for High Throughput Computing at UW–Madison)
- 6 October 2011
- Searches for New Physics with the Large Hadron Collider
- Jeff Klukas
- Invited talk for the UW–Whitewater Physics Seminar series
- 19 November 2010
Other Teaching Experience
- MCAT Preparation Instructor
- UW–Madison
- 2009–2010
- Developed, managed, and taught a 30-hour module for a class of 20 pre-med students
- Teaching Workshop Developer
- UW–Madison
- 2007–2009
- Co-developed with Prof. Michael Winokur a training workshop to orient teaching assistants to use active techniques in their discussion sections
- Teaching Assistant
- UW–Madison
- 2006, 2009
- Facilitated discussion sections and lab exercises for first-semester introductory physics courses, both calculus and non-calculus based
- Physics & Mathematics Tutor
- Naval ROTC, UW–Madison
- 2007-2009
- Highly rated among students for drop-in tutoring six hours a week for all levels of physics and math
- Tutor
- Wittenberg University
- 2004–2006
- Drop-in tutoring in both physics and French
- Writing Advisor
- Wittenberg University
- 2004-2006
- Nominated by faculty and trained in techniques for one-on-one tutoring. The Writing Workshop is an integral part of the English program and a resource widely used for work in other departments across the curriculum
Teaching Workshops
- Forum of the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning
- UW–Madison
- 2011
- Two-day workshop focused on approaches to preparation of the nation’s future faculty
- Opening Workshop for New STEM Educators
- Marshfield, Wisconsin
- 2010
- Attendance funded through UW–Whitewater
- Two-day workshop focused on promoting strategies for active learning associated with increased success for members of underrepresented groups
- Teaching & Learning Symposium
- UW–Madison
- 2010
- Two-day workshop focused on sharing best practices for teaching and enriching the UW–Madison learning experience
- Teaching and Assessing Student Abilities Workshop
- Alverno College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- 2009
- Attendance invited through CIRTL
- Day-long workshop investigating Alverno’s abilities-based curriculum
Teaching Presentations
- Panel Discussion, Meeting of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning
- Don Gillian-Daniel, Bob Mathieu, Mark Connoly, Jeff Klukas, and Adam Hoffman
- Participated in a panel discussing the approach and experience of UW–Madison’s Delta program
- 22 October, 2011
- Delta Teaching & Learning Philosophy Workshop
- Don Gillian-Daniel and Jeff Klukas
- Co-facilitated workshop for grads and postdocs preparing for the teaching job market
- 30 September, 2011
- Poster, CIRTL Forum 2008: Aligning the Preparation of Graduate Students for STEM Early Faculty Careers
- Jeff Klukas and Michael Winokur
- Presented poster showcasing cooperative group learning workshop
- 16 June 2008
- Poster, UW–Madison Teaching and Learning Symposium Showcase
- Jeff Klukas and Michael Winokur
- Presented poster showcasing cooperative group learning workshop
- 22 May 2008
- TA Training Workshop
- Jeff Klukas
- UW–Madison Physics Department
- Facilitated an original workshop for all new physics TAs on how to successfully lead cooperative group work
- August 2007 & August 2008
- Adapted the same workshop for TAs across the STEM fields for the UW–Madison Engineering Teaching Improvement Program
- January 2008 & January 2009