Short CV
Thierry Lasserre is a physicist at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Commission (CEA), and an associate researcher at the AstroParticle and Cosmology laboratory (APC) in Paris. He received his PhD in 2000 from Paris 6 University in the field of observational cosmology, searching for Galactic Dark Matter at the La Silla observatory in Chile. From 2000-2002 he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, working on the detection of low energy solar neutrinos. He has been at CEA-Saclay since 2002 as a staff member, and head of the low energy neutrino group since 2004. From 2003 he has been among the initiators and leaders of the Double Chooz experiment studying neutrinos oscillations. From 2004 he has been co-principal investigator of the Nucifer experiment using neutrinos to prevent proliferation of nuclear fissile material, in collaboration with the International Agency for Atomic Energy (IAEA). He received his habilitation thesis in 2010. In 2011 Thierry Lasserre and colleagues discovered the reactor neutrino anomaly that could be explained by the existence of new sterile neutrinos with a mass of 1 eV. He is among the leaders of the CeSOX experiment to search for these hypothetical particles by using a Cerium-144 based antineutrino generator deployed next to the Borexino detector at the Gran Sasso Laboratory, in Italy. More recently he developed interest to search for keV sterile neutrinos as an explanation for the missing Dark Matter in the Universe.
Selected Awards
- 2012-2017, ERC Starting Grant 4th-Nu-Avenue (R&D for realizing an intense Ce-144 antineutrino generator)
- 2012-2014, Member of the CERN SPS-C Committee
- 2011, CEA Senior Expert in the field of particle physics
- 2011, Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques
- 2010, Delegate in the IAEA as neutrino expert
- 2010, CNRS Bronze Medal
Research Interests
Thierry Lasserre’s research interests include both fields of particle physics (neutrinos) and observational cosmology (Dark Matter). He has been working on the measurement of neutrino properties with the Double Chooz experiment (neutrino oscillations). In 2011 Thierry Lasserre and colleagues revisited the computation of reactor neutrino spectra and unveiled the reactor neutrino anomaly, that could be explained by the existence of a new type of neutrinos. This triggered the CeSOX experiment at the Gran Sasso laboratory to search for light sterile neutrinos. He recently developed interest in searching for keV sterile neutrinos as a possible explanation of the missing Dark Matter in the Universe. Beside these basic science activities he is also interested in interdisciplinary applications of neutrino physics. The Nucifer experiment is currently taking data to demonstrate that neutrinos could be used as a tool to help preventing the proliferation of nuclear fissile material, in collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He is also active in bringing both the neutrino and geoscience communities together for using geo-neutrinos to constraint Earth Models. Recently he worked on the possible location of forthcoming Supernovae in the sky through neutrinos by combining world liquid scintillator detectors.
Selected Publications
- Abe, Y.; Aberle, C.; Akiri, T.; dos Anjos, J. C.; Ardellier, F.; Barbosa, A. F.; Baxter, A.; Bergevin, M.; Bernstein, A.; Bezerra, T. J. C.; Bezrukhov, L.; Blucher, E.; Bongrand, M.; Bowden, N. S.; Buck, C.; Busenitz, J.; Cabrera, A.; Caden, E.; Camilleri, L.; Carr, R.; Cerrada, M.; Chang, P.-J.; Chimenti, P.; Classen, T.; Collin, A. P.; Conover, E.; Conrad, J. M.; Cormon, S.; Crespo-Anadón, J. I.; Cribier, M.; Crum, K.; Cucoanes, A.; D’Agostino, M. V.; Damon, E.; Dawson, J. V.; Dazeley, S.; Dierckxsens, M.; Dietrich, D.; Djurcic, Z.; Dracos, M.; Durand, V.; Efremenko, Y.; Elnimr, M.; Endo, Y.; Etenko, A.; Falk, E.; Fallot, M.; Fechner, M.; von Feilitzsch, F.; Felde, J. et al.: Indication of Reactor ν ¯ e Disappearance in the Double Chooz Experiment. Phys. Rev. Lett. 108 (13), 2012.
- Cribier, Michel; Fechner, Maximilien; Lasserre, Thierry; Letourneau, Alain; Lhuillier, David; Mention, Guillaume; Franco, Davide; Kornoukhov, Vasily; Schönert, Stefan: Proposed Search for a Fourth Neutrino with a PBq Antineutrino Source. Phys. Rev. Lett. 107 (20), 2011.
- Mueller, Th. A.; Lhuillier, D.; Fallot, M.; Letourneau, A.; Cormon, S.; Fechner, M.; Giot, L.; Lasserre, T.; Martino, J.; Mention, G.; Porta, A.; Yermia, F.: Improved predictions of reactor antineutrino spectra. Phys. Rev. C 83 (5), 2011.
- Mention, G.; Fechner, M.; Lasserre, Th.; Mueller, Th. A.; Lhuillier, D.; Cribier, M.; Letourneau, A.: Reactor antineutrino anomaly. Physical Review D 83 (7), 2011.
Publications as TUM-IAS-Fellow