Invited Speakers

Dr Bryan McKinnon, University of Glasgow, UK

Prof. Ani Aprahamian

Ani Aprahamian is the Freimann Professor of Physics & Astronomy, and concurrent professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame. Her research expands from investigating reactions that take place shortly after the Big Bang to those that occur in cataclysmic scenarios such as neutron star mergers, and core-collapse supernovae. In every aspect, she is interested in the role of structure and dynamics of atomic nuclei in influencing the cosmos. She is also interested in applications of nuclear science in medicine as well as energy production with the development of special materials for fusion.

Talk: Were the Superheavy Elements Made in Nature?

Dr Sophia Heinz

Sophia Heinz is an experimental nuclear physicist. She is a staff scientist at GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, an associate professor at Justus Liebig University Giessen, and a lecturer at Philipps University of Marburg, all in Germany. Her research focus is fusion and deep-in elastic transfer reactions in heavy-ion collisions with stable and radioactive projectile beams, aiming at the synthesis and study of new heavy and superheavy nuclides.

Talk: Extending the Chart of Nuclides: How to Create New (Super)Heavy Nuclei

Dr Rob Izzard

Dr Robert Izzard is an astrophysicist at the University of Surrey who studies how stars live, interact and enrich the Universe with the chemical elements needed to build planets and, ultimately, life. His research explores the evolution of single, binary and multiple stars, with a particular focus on stellar nucleosynthesis and the chemical evolution of galaxies. He is also interested in unusual stars, globular clusters and the ways in which stars and planets form in binary systems. Much of his work uses advanced computer modelling to follow large populations of stars and predict how they change over time. Through this combination of theory, computation and astrophysics, his research helps explain how stellar systems shape the visible Universe we see today.

Talk: Nuclear Signatures from Binary Stars

Dr Ivan Martinez Soler

Ivan Martinez Soler is an Assistant Professor at Durham University and Academic Staff at the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology. His work focuses on understanding the fundamental properties of neutrinos using the sensitivity of current and next‑generation experiments. He is also interested in exploring signals of physics beyond the Standard Model across a broad range of energy scales, from sub‑MeV to beyond PeV, drawing on both terrestrial and astrophysical neutrino sources.

Ivan earned his PhD in theoretical physics from the Instituto de Fisica Teorica (IFT) at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. He later moved to the United States, where he conducted postdoctoral research at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Northwestern University, followed by a second postdoctoral appointment at Harvard University.

Talk: Neutrino–Nucleus Interactions from Reactors to the Cosmos: Precision Measurements and New Physics Opportunities

Prof. Silvia Niccolai

My physics education started in Italy, at the Università di Genova, and continued at the George Washington University (USA), where I obtained a PhD in Nuclear Physics. I have been staff scientist at IJCLab (a CNRS laboratory in France) for the last 20 years. My main research focus is studying the structure of the nucleon with the CLAS12 detector at Jefferson Lab (JLab). I have constructed a neutron detector for CLAS12. I am spokesperson of various CLAS12 experiments, and analysis coordinator of two of them. I am a past Chair of the CLAS Collaboration. I am the head of the JLab group in France. I was until recently a member of the European Physical Society Nuclear Physics Division Board and of the CERN LHCC Committee. I participated in the drafting of the 2024 Long Range Plan for Nuclear Physics in Europe.

Talk: Unveiling nucleon structure through measurements of Generalized Parton Distributions

Prof. Dr. sc. Nils Paar

Nils Paar is a full professor of physics at the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, working in theoretical nuclear physics. He holds a PhD in theoretical nuclear physics from the Technical University of Munich. His research centers on the development and application of relativistic density functional theory to address open problems in nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics. Key interests include exotic excitations in unstable nuclei, collective excitation phenomena, nuclear structure and dynamics at finite temperature, weak interaction processes in supernova evolution, neutrino–nucleus interactions, and symmetry energy of the nuclear equation of state with implications for neutron star properties.

Talk: Nuclear structure and dynamics at finite temperature

Dr Arnau Rios Huguet

I am an Associate Professor at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences and the Department of Quantum Physics & Astrophysics at the University of Barcelona, with over 20 years of research experience. I spent a decade at the University of Surrey as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer, holding Marie Curie and STFC Advanced Fellowships. I earned my PhD from the University of Barcelona in 2007 and completed postdoctoral work at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (USA)

My research focuses on theoretical nuclear physics, including ab initio many‑body methods, nuclear structure and reactions, and applications to astrophysical simulations. I have recently pioneered the use of machine learning tools for nuclear simulations and I am also working at the interface of quantum computing and nuclear theory. I have published 53 refereed papers, supervised 5 PhD students, and taught at all levels of bachelor's and master's degrees. I am the president of the Nuclear Physics Group at the Spanish Royal Physics Society, and serve as Associate Editor for European Journal of Physics A.

Talk: Quantum algorithms for the nuclear shell model

Dr Chantal Shand

Chantal Shand is a nuclear physicist and the Applied Radiation Technology Group Leader at UKAEA. She completed her MPhys at the University of Surrey before earning a PhD in experimental nuclear physics from the University of Brighton, where she investigated spin and parity assignments for the ground and isomeric states in yttrium‑102. During her doctoral work, Chantal developed expertise in nuclear instrumentation and gamma spectroscopy, which she brought to UKAEA in her first role managing the RADLab, a specialist facility for gamma and neutron spectroscopy. Since joining UKAEA, she has delivered and led experiments ranging from shielding benchmark validation to activation assessments of coolant‑loop water for fusion applications. As group leader, Chantal now shapes the strategic direction of nuclear analysis and instrumentation to support UKAEA’s fusion mission.

Talk: The Path to Commercial Fusion Energy

Dr Ragandeep Singh Sidhu

Sidhu is a Surrey Future Fellow at the University of Surrey, working in the field of experimental nuclear astrophysics. He completed his PhD at Heidelberg University in Germany, where he was involved in storage-ring experiments at the GSI/FAIR laboratory in Darmstadt. His research focuses on precise measurements of fundamental nuclear properties, including nuclear masses, half-lives, and reaction rates that occur within stars. He is particularly interested in understanding how the elements are synthesised across a wide range of astrophysical environments, from quiescent burning in stars like our Sun to explosive phenomena such as novae and X-ray bursts. To address these questions, he utilizes both stable and radioactive ion beams and conducts experiments at international facilities, including GSI/FAIR (Germany), RIBF at RIKEN (Japan), and the University of Notre Dame (USA).

Talk: Storage Rings for Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics

Prof. John Smith

John Smith is a professor of nuclear physics at the University of the West of Scotland in Paisley. He has over 30 years of experience in research studying the structure of exotic atomic nuclei, primarily using methods of gamma-ray spectroscopy. He has led nuclear-physics experiments in a number of different countries. His present programme of research is carried out using state-of-the-art spectrometers such as Jurogam and Sage at the Jyväskylä Accelerator Laboratory in Finland, AGATA at the Legnaro National Laboratory in Italy and Gammasphere at Argonne National Laboratory in the USA. His main areas of interest is the study of octupole corelations in nuclei, in particular focussing on nuclei in the light-actinide region and in the region of neutron-deficient nuclei close to N=Z=56.

Talk: Spectroscopy of pear-shaped nuclei

Dr Robin Smith

Robin Smith is a Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University (SHU). He specialises in experimental nuclear physics across applied and curiosity-driven fields, with expertise in Time Projection Chambers (TPCs), charged-particle spectroscopy with silicon detectors, neutron beam characterisation, and Monte-Carlo modelling.

In his latest work, Smith has conducted world-leading astrophysics research using TPCs, with a focus on photo-dissociation for measuring the ¹²C(α,ɣ) reaction. He has supervised 5 PhD students to completion as lead supervisor and currently supervises two on-going nuclear structure PhDs. His work in nuclear structure focuses on α-clustering in light nuclei, tests of nuclear phenomenology, and nuclear decay dynamics. He received the Few-Body Systems Award for Young Researchers (2019).

Smith has also led several industry and fusion-driven projects funded by the National Nuclear Laboratory, UKAEA, NuSec/NNSA, and the UK Nuclear Data Network, and is a Senior Visiting Fellow at UKAEA.

Talk: Exploring the key astrophysical reaction ¹²C(α,ɣ) with TPCs and ɣ beams