Bio
Dr. Matta is research staff in the ARDIDSA group of the Physics Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. During his graduate studies at the University of Notre Dame he worked with Umesh Garg and studied triaxial wobbling with high spin gamma-ray spectroscopy as well as the isoscalar giant monopole resonance with inelastic scattering and optical model analysis. He received his Ph.D. in nuclear physics in August 2015. Later he joined the ORNL Physics Division as a post-doctoral research associate working on the PROSPECT reactor anti-neutrino measurement project. Afterward, he moved to Cadre5, LLC and subcontracted to ARDIDSA to write data acquisition systems for computer and FPGA, data analysis toolchains, and Monte-Carlo simulations, and helped design detectors. In May 2022, James joined ORNL and is expanding the scope of his work to include forays into arms control in the hardware and software trust focus area of the PROACTIVE venture while continuing his efforts in DAQ software and firmware, data analysis, and simulation.
Professional Experience
- ORNL, Research Staff: May, 2022 - Present
- Cadre5, LLC, Systems Integration and Development Scientist: March, 2018 - May, 2022
- ORNL, Postdoctoral Research Associate: November, 2015 - March, 2018
Education
- B.S. Physics and Mathematics Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, May 2007
- Minors in Computer Science and Electronics
- M.S. University of Notre Dame du Lac, April 2011
- Nuclear Physics - Focus on Nuclear Structure
- Ph.D. University of Notre Dame du Lac, August 2015
- Dissertation: Exotic Nuclear Excitations: The Transverse Wobbling Mode in 135Pr