CURRICULUM VITAE (Marcos Dracos)

Personal Data

Marcos Dracos was born in Prastio-Morphou (Cyprus) the 21st of August 1957. He obtained his PhD in 1987 presenting a thesis with the title “Identification des Particules dans l'Expérience LEP-DELPHI, Étude Expérimentale de la Détection de Photoélectrons et de la Résolution sur l'angle Cerenkov avec le Prototype du Barrel RICH” at Université Louis Pasteur Strasbourg. He has been awarded the ADRERUS prize (Association pour le développement des relations entre l’économie et les universités d’Alsace) for his contribution to the research of new technics in particle detection and identification. He was assistant professor between 1987 and 1988 at the University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg. He got a fellowship from CERN between 1990 and 1992. He is permanent researcher in CNRS since 1988. He is currently Director of Research 1st class in Particle Physics at IPHC-IN2P3 in Strasbourg (France).

Address and contact:

                                    Dr. Marcos Dracos

                                    Directeur de Recherche

                                    IPHC/CNRS, Université de Strasbourg

                                    23, Rue du Loess

                                    67037 Strasbourg

                                    France

                                    Email: marcos.dracos@in2p3.fr

                                    Phone: +33388106370

Research Activity

Author of more than 400 publications and conference proceedings, he has developed his research activity in the field of Particle Physics. He has particularly worked on the verification of the Standard Model by participating to the LEP/CERN experiments and neutrino projects. In this context, he has initially participated to the development of new technics on particle identification followed by the development and construction of neutrino detectors.

In the end of 80's and during the 90's he mainly has been working on precision electroweak physics in DELPHI/LEP experiment. On this subject he has invented technics of particle identification using the RICH detector. Using these technics, he has tested the universality of coupling constants by measuring the asymmetry and branching ratio of  and comparing it to those of .

During these years, he had participated to the preparation of an experiment on future LHC collider to study b physics and CP violation. He has proposed the utilisation of a gaseous RICH as a powerful tool for particle identification. This project gave birth to the experiment LHC-B.

In the late 90's, he proposed a new very compact wire chamber called “Micro Gap Wire Chambers (MGWC)” for which he made an intensive R&D and also developed specific radiation hardened electronics for the readout. The main advantage of this detector compared to other micro-pattern detectors was coming from the real bi-dimensional readout. This project has been declared "innovative project" by IN2P3 and benefited from a special budget. The MGWC chambers have been used later on to observe for the first time the 2-proton radioactivity. It has also been demonstrated that these chambers could be used very efficiently for medical imaging. Considering the rapidity and low material of the MGWC chambers, they have also been proposed to be used as one of the tracking detectors of the e+e- TESLA project. They were also good candidates for the readout of the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) of the same project.

In 1999 and after approval by CERN of the CNGS (CERN Neutrino to Gran Sasso beam) project, his scientific activity has been focused on the physics of neutrinos and more specifically on neutrino oscillations. He has started participating to the OPERA project proposing to observe for the first time the tau neutrino appearance in the relatively pure CNGS muon neutrino beam. The team he had constituted in Strasbourg has proposed the utilization of long plastic strips readout by Wave Length Shifting fibres and multianode photomultipliers for the readout. After proving the feasibility of this detector, this technic has been accepted to be used for the OPERA main tracker, the Target Tracker. The OPERA experiment had been approved by the CERN and LNGS scientific committees and the Strasbourg institute got the responsibility to construct and install the Target Tracker in the underground laboratory of Gran Sasso (Italy). The Target Tracker has been successfully constructed and operated up to the end of 2012. In 2017, OPERA has recorded five tau neutrino events, reaching 5 σ significance, showing in appearance mode that the muon neutrinos oscillate into tau neutrinos.

From 2007 to 2015, he participated to the neutrino oscillation experiment Double Chooz. This nuclear reactor experiment taking place at the nuclear plant of Chooz (France), complementary to the OPERA one, was proposed to observe for the first time the disappearance of electron anti-neutrinos at a distance of about 1 km from nuclear reactors. After approval of the project, Strasbourg has been assigned the responsibility of the calibration of the detector using light injectors. Using only the far detector, Double Chooz has given end of 2011 strong indications of the existence of electron anti-neutrino disappearance confirmed later on by two other independent experiments. On top of the installation and operation of the calibration system for both, near and far detectors, the Strasbourg group participated to the analysis and simulation of the data and background understanding.

In 2008, he has proposed to use nuclear emulsions to detect neutrinoless double beta decays in order to prove that neutrinos are Majorana particles. This proposal has been inspired by the extraordinary development done in this field by OPERA experiment. He had clearly showed that a very efficient and compact detector could be build using this technic. He has written two publications in this field.

After measuring the lasting neutrino mixing angle and finding it relatively large compared to expectations, it became possible to measure a possible CP violation in the leptonic sector using neutrino Super Beams (see below) and also determine the neutrino mass hierarchy using nuclear reactors.

In 2014, IPHC-Strasbourg with other institutes co-founded the JUNO Collaboration which main goal is to solve the problem of the mass hierarchy placing a 20 kt liquid scintillator detector at about 52 km from nuclear reactors. In this experiment which counts now more than 75 institutes and located in the South of China, IPHC has the responsibility to provide the muon Top Tracker. For this, the decommissioned OPERA Target Tracker has been sent to China for installation on top of the central detector in 2021, after reshuffling and replacement of its electronics. Marcos Dracos is the project leader of the Top Tracker. He is also the Chair of the JUNO Institutional Board and Chair of the Funding Committee.

Other relevant contributions to neutrino oscillations come from his participation during the last 10 years to European and international projects and collaborations preparing the future neutrino experiments and facilities. He is one of the initiators of the FP7 Design Study EUROnu proposed to study three different technics for the production of very intense neutrino beams that would allow the discovery of CP violation in the leptonic sector. The same projects could also solve the problem of the neutrino mass hierarchy. During the four years of this project (2008 to 2012), the three technics, Suber Beam, Beta Beam and Neutrino Factory, have been extensively studied in order to prove their feasibility. The goal has not only been achieved but also the three technics have been significantly improved on the technological and physics point of view.

Using the previous experience and after the measurement of the mixing angle θ₁₃, he proposes since 2012 to use the European Spallation Source under construction in Lund, to produce a very intense neutrino beam. This new facility has a great potentiality to discover CP violation in the leptonic sector by placing the far detector in a distance corresponding to the second neutrino oscillation maximum. At this position the sensitivity to a matter-antimatter asymmetry is significantly higher than for the first oscillation maximum. The second advantage compared to the first oscillation maximum comes from the fact that the systematic errors influence less the measurement.

To study a possible observation of CP violation in the neutrino sector, he coordinates since 2016 the four years COST Action EuroNuNet (CA15139) which aim is "Combining forces for a novel European facility for neutrino-antineutrino symmetry violation discovery". The Action counts today 13 European countries and have as observers the ESS, CERN and IHEP (Beijing).

In order to perform a feasibility Design Study of a neutrino beam based on ESS, he created the ESSνSB Collaboration counting today 17 institutes. This project is now financed by the EU-H2020/INFRADEV Design Study having the same name, ESSνSB, and coordinated by Marcos Dracos. The total cost of this Design Study is 4.7 M€, from which 3 M€ are provided by EU. The duration of the project, started beginning of 2018, is 4 years. After the end of this period and according to the results, an R&D period is expected before pushing for final approval of the corresponding long baseline project.

In addition of the neutrino oscillation physics, ESSνSB has a rich astroparticle physics program. Thanks to the very high number of muons produced at the same time than neutrinos, in a second stage, the proposed facility could be used by a Neutrino Factory for high precision neutrino parameter measurements and by a muon collider, which could be used as a Higgs Factory.

Local Responsibilities

He was responsible of the organisation of his institute High Energy seminars for 6 years. He has created and was responsible for four years of the project R&D Micro Gap Wire Chambers and associated electronics. Since 1999, he is group leader of neutrino activities in Strasbourg including OPERA, Double Chooz, JUNO experiments and European projects.

Institutional and Organisational Activities

He was coordinator of the physics working group s-inclusive in DELPHI experiment. In this working group, 6 PhD students prepared their thesis, 2 of them under his direct responsibility. He was for many years the Project Leader of the OPERA Target Tracker (main electronic detector of the experiment). During this time, 3 PhD students prepared their thesis having as main subject the Target Tracker, 2 of them under his responsibility. Since 2014, he is Project Leader of the JUNO Top Tracker. For the same experiment he is Chair of the Institutional Board and of the Funding Committee. He was and he is from 2014 to 2016 and from 2019 on national representative of the five IN2P3 institutes participating in JUNO.

He has been responsible of the group "Hadronic Collector" of the FP6 European project BENE/CARE (future neutrino beams). He was deputy spokesman of the FP7 European Design Study EUROnu (15 European institutions) and national representative of the 4 involved CNRS institutes, from 2008 to 2012.

He is since 2016 Coordinator of the COST Action EuroNuNet (13 European countries) and of the EU-H2020 Design Study ESSνSB (17 European institutes).

In 2004, he has created the GDR neutrino (Groupement de Recherche) grouping 120 French researchers from CNRS and CEA. He was for 6 years director of this GDR. The main aim of this GDR was to coordinate the neutrino activities in France and promote the work of young researchers. The GDR defines every 4 years the French neutrino roadmap.

He was President of the Expert Committee for Nuclear and High Energy physics of the University of Strasbourg from 2010 to 2020. The role of this committee was to evaluate the candidacies of new permanent and non-permanent academic positions.

Since many years he is referee of the scientific reviews Nuclear Instrument and Methods (Elsevier), Astroparticle Physics (Elsevier), Radiation Measurements (Elsevier) and Earth, Planets and Space for High Energy Earth Science (Japan). He is also project evaluator of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, of Swiss National Science Foundation and of French ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche). Since 2016 he is evaluator of the Italian Research and University Evaluation Agency (ANVUR) and of the Czech Science Foundation. In 2017, he has been evaluator of the Conseil régional d'Ile-de-France (Appel à projets SESAME). In 2014 he has been evaluator of Canada Excellence Research Chair in Particles Astrophysics.

He has participated in the organisation of many conferences and workshops and he is currently member of the scientific committee of NuFact (workshop on neutrino factories, super beams and beta beam), one of the major neutrino conferences.

From 2012 to 2016 he was member of the LHC Experiments Resource Review Boards Scrutiny Group and of the LHC Experiments Upgrade Cost Group (UCG).

Impact of Research Activity

The impact on the experimental field of Particle Physics and especially on particle detection technics has been substantial. Among the more than 400 publications, six of his most cited paper collects more than 500 quotes and ten others between 250 and 500, with a mean citation factor per paper of 83. According to SPIRES, his h-index is 81. He was convener and invited speaker at many international conferences/workshops, advisor of 12 PhD students and responsible of many trainees in High Energy Physics.