University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Assistant Professor Tova Holmes, in the College of Arts and Sciences, has received a Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for her work in high-energy particle physics.
The prestigious fellowships honor exceptional U.S. and Canadian researchers whose creativity, innovation and research accomplishments make them stand out as the next generation of leaders. Holmes is the sixth faculty member from UT to receive the award since its inception in 1955. The Sloan Research Fellowship will provide Holmes with $75,000 to continue her work.
Holmes’ current research centers on searching for new fundamental particles using colliders — machines that force beams of particles to collide at high speeds. These machines are built to address the big questions humanity has about the universe: What makes up dark matter, the material we see evidence of throughout the universe that far outweighs our familiar matter? What did the birth of the universe look like? What might its death look like?
To further those goals, Holmes is a leader in the effort to establish a muon collider in the United States. Using muons, which are 200 times heavier than electrons, in a collider could allow researchers to reach higher collision energies than currently possible.