Dr. Jessica Esquivel

 

    Dr. Jessica Esquivel is one of few Black female particle physicists with a Ph.D. in physics from Syracuse University. She is one of 150 Black women in history to obtain a Ph.D. in physics. Dr. Esquivel is also an advocate for increasing diversity in the physics field. She believes that the STEM field's lack of diversity has caused implicit racial bias to influence scientific discoveries that have had daunting impacts on minority communities. 

   Her physics career began at St. Marys College, where she earned a degree in Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics. Esquivel researched neutrinos during graduate school, sub-atomic particles that pass through our body practically untouched. Her research with neutrinos was the first ever to identify interactions of low energy nuetrinos. 

  Currently, Esquivel is working as a particle physicist for Fermilab. She is collaborating with other particle physicists on the project Muon g-2, where she works with the largest detectors of particles in the country to study muons' interactions using a magnetic field in empty space. The goal of this experiment is to test and examine the precession of muons in a magnetic field. This experiment is testing the accuracy of the Standard model, and their findings have the potential to prove inconsistencies and deviations in the Standard model that would point to the existence of newly found particles.

References:

https://muon-g-2.fnal.gov

https://www.adlerplanetarium.org/blog/chicagos-black-women-in-steam-series-meet-jessica/

https://www.laboratoryequipment.com/566588-Women-in-Science-Exploring-the-Intersection-of-Identity-and-Profession/