University of Liverpool Physicist Awarded Prestigious Ernest Rutherford Fellowship

Dr Saskia Charity, from the University of Liverpool’s Department of Physics, has been awarded a prestigious Ernest Rutherford Fellowship from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

Dr Charity is among ten new recipients of the fellowships which recognise the most promising early-career Particle Physics, Astronomy and Nuclear physics researchers in the UK and supports them to develop their careers and push the boundaries of their field.

Dr Charity will use the fellowship to look for ‘New Physics’ which lies beyond our current understanding of how the Universe works as described by the Standard Model.

She will focus on making ultra-precise measurements of particles called muons in order to search for cracks in the Standard Model.

Specifically, Dr Charity aims to resolve the muon g-2 puzzle, the longstanding tension between experimental measurements and theoretical calculations of how muons behave in a magnetic field.

She will use data from the Fermilab g-2 and a new experiment at CERN, called MUonE, to shed light on this puzzle by providing a direct measurement of the most challenging part of the calculation.

Dr Charity said: “I’m very honoured to be awarded this prestigious fellowship and to be launching my new research programme measuring the muon anomalous magnetic moment discrepancy with the muon g-2 and MUonE experiments.”

Professor Grahame Blair, Executive Director of Research Programmes at STFC, said: “We receive many, exceptionally high applications for this fellowship and it is exceedingly difficult each year to decide on the ten successful awardees. I am very proud of the achievements of all our previous fellows though, and look forward to following the progress of this latest cohort as they reaffirm the UK’s place as a leader in physics and astronomy research.

“Congratulations to the 2024 Ernest Rutherford Fellows and good luck in your endeavours.”