Andrea Castro

Academic profile:

• Currently, Associate Professor of General Physics at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Bologna
• "Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale alla prima fascia per il settore concorsuale 02/A1" (until 5/10/2024)
  
• Guest Scientist at Fermilab from September 1, 2005 to August 31, 2006
• Associate Professor of General Physics at the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Natural Sciences of the University of Bologna since November 1999 (confirmed in 2002)
• Research Assistant ("Ricercatore Universitario") at the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Natural Sciences of the University of Padova from March 1990 to October 1999 (confirmed in 1993)
• Visiting Experimental Physicist at SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford, USA) from September 1989 to February 1990
• INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare) fellowship ("borsa di studio") from July 1987 to June 1989
• Degree in Physics (July, 16, 1985) from the University of Padova with maximum grades (110/110)

• Participation from 1985 to 1992 to the international collaboration DM2 based in Orsay, France. I studied the events produced in the decay of the J/Psi meson produced in e+e- collisions, performing measurements of hadronic spectroscopy and of form factors. These measurements have been presented at international conferences and have been published on international scientific journals.
• Participation from 1989 to 1990 to the international collaboration SLD based in Stanford, USA. I took part to the construction and commissioning of the SLD detector, with particular emphasis on the test and installation of the front-end electronics of the external calorimeter. I also wrote the software for the test, control and data acquisition of the external calorimeter.
• Participation from 1990 to 2010 to the international collaboration CDF based at Fermilab near Chicago, USA. In this experiment I followed mainly the production of top quarks, taking part in its discovery in 1995. Together with a few colleagues from Padova and Bologna University I measured the top quark properties (its mass and production cross section) in the most challenging channel, the fully hadronic one with only jet in the final state. Over the years we measure mass and cross section with increasing precisions obtaining measurement which contribute significantly to the world average. I developed selection techniques based on neural network discriminators and heavy flavor identification to suppress the huge background which overwhelms by a factor of 1000 or more the wanted signal of top quark pairs. These and other measurements have been presented at international conferences and published on international scientific journals. During a sabbatical leave I have coordinated in Fermilab the physics group dedicated to the fully hadronic top; this coordination activity continued over the years although in a remote form. In my activity for CDF I have been supervisor for an undergraduate thesis ("tesi di Laurea"), two PhD theses, and two post-doc contracts.
• Participation since 2007 to the international collaboration CMS based at CERN near Geneve, Switzerland. My research activity was aimed at the study of the top quark production and the measurement of its mass. I studied especially in the all-hadronic channel through the supervision of  PhD theses, undergraduate theses and post-doc contracts. The results have been presented at several international conferences and published. Since March 2010 I belong to the "CMS publication committee" in charge of the several stages of the process of article submission to the scientific journals. Since 2012 I chair the subpanel in charge of the publications on top quark physics, and I have supervised the preparation of more than 70 papers submitted to international journals.

• Workshop on Nucleon Structure, Frascati (Italy),27-28 October 1988 (talk on The pion, kaon and proton form factor at DM2)
• HADRON '93, Como (Italy), 21-25 June 1993 (talk on the Status of vector meson spectroscopy from the DM2 e+e- annihilation studies in the 1350-2400 MeV energy range)
• 28th International Conference on High Energy Physics, Warsaw (Poland), 25-31 July 1996 (talk on the Top production and decay at CDF).
• XXXII Rencontres de Moriond, Les Arc (France), 22-29 July 1997 (talk on the Measurement of top-antitop production cross section at the Tevatron).
• 7th International Conference on Supersymmetries in Physics, Fermilab 14-19 June 1999 (talk on the Light Gravitino Search at CDF)
• XIII Italian workshop on LEP physics, Roma, 18-20 April 2001 (talk on the Measurement of the W and top mass at the Tevatron: Results and perspectives)
• Incontri di Fisica delle Alte Energie, Parma, 4-5 April 2002 (talk on the Supersymmetry searches at the Tevatron).
• IV Workshop Italiano sulla Fisica di ATLAS e CMS, Bologna 23-25 November 2006 (talk on Highlights from Tevatron).
• International Workshop on Top Quark Physics, Isola d'Elba 18-24 May 2008 (talk on t/t cross section at CDF).
• Lepton-Photon 2013, San Francisco 24-29 June 2013 (talk on Top quark mass at hadron colliders).
•  TOP2015, Ischia 14-18 September 2015 (talk on Top Quark Mass measurements at the LHC. - standard methods).
• BLOIS2017, Blois 28 May - 2 June 2017 (talk on Top mass in ATLAS and CMS)
• EPS-HEP2017, Venezia 5-12 July 2017 (talk on Measurements of the top quark properties at decay with CMS)
• TOP2017, Braga 17-22 September 2017 (talk on Top quark mass (CMS))
• TOP2019, Beijing 22-27 Settembre 2019 (talk on Top quark mass measurements in ATLAS and CMS)
• ICHEP20, Prague 28 Luglio - 6 Agosto 2020 (talk on Measurements of tt + jets, tt + bb, and tttt production at CMS)

• At the University of Padova: Assistant lecturer for courses of Physics I and II for the Degree ("Laurea") in Natural Sciences (Academic Year: 1987/88 and 1988/89), Geology (AY: 1990/91, 1991/92, 1992/93) and Electronic Engineering (AY: 1992/93, 1994/95, 1995/96, 1996/97, 1997/98, 1998/99) taking part in the exam commissions
• At the University of Modena: (Temporary) Lecturer for the course of Fundamentals of Nuclear and Subnuclear Physics for the Degree in Physics (AY: 1995/96, 1996/97, 1997/98)
• At the University of Bologna: Lecturer for the course of Laboratory of Physics for the Degree in Chemistry (AY: 1999/00, 2000/01); of Physics II for the Degree in Chemistry (AY: 2001/02, 2002/03, 2003/04, 2004/05, 2006/07, 2007/08, 2009/09, 2009/10, 2010/11, 2011/12, 2012/13,2013/14,2014/15,2015/16,2016/17,2017/18,2018/19,2019/20,2020/21); of Complements of Physics for the Degree in Chemistry (AY: 2006/07, 2007/08, 2009/09, 2009/10, 2010/11, 2011/12, 2012/13,2013/14,2014/15,2015/16,2016/17,2017/18,2018/19,2019/20,2020/21); of General Physics II for the Degree in Mathematics (AY: 2004/05, 2006/07, 2007/08); of Particle Physics for the Master Degree in Physics (Laurea Magistrale) (AY: 2009/10, 2010/11, 2011/12, 2012/13,2013/14,2014/15,2015/16,2016/17,2017/18); Introduction to Particle Physics for the Master Degree in Physics (AY: 2018/19,2019/20,2020/21)