Research activity description and interest :
Senior scientist with over 20 years of experience in particle physics, X-ray optics, detector technology, and nuclear applications. He has contributed to research on solar axion searches and X-ray optics development at the CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST, CERN) and the International Axion Observatory (IAXO, DESY). He has expertise in time projection chambers (TPCs), micromegas (MMs), rare event searches (TREX-DM), and nuclear physics research (Nuclear-Induced Fission Fragment Tracking Experiment, NIFFTE), along with applications of machine learning for pulse shape discrimination and implementation in nuclear safety. Responsibilities and Roles: Dr. Ruz served as principal investigator, contact person, and deputy technical coordinator for CAST, leading the international effort on ultra-low background detectors. For over a decade, he worked as a permanent research associate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL, California, USA), where he pioneered the development of X-ray optics for axion searches and coordinated government-funded projects as Principal Investigator (Co-I), including studies on nuclear fission (NIFFTE) and machine learning applications for particle discrimination. He is a founding member of IAXO, leading the development of various prototypes and pathfinders that contributed to the world-leading upper limits of CAST on solar axion-photon coupling. He is currently the beamline coordinator for the IAXO collaboration.
