UC Riverside doctoral student awarded prestigious DOE fellowship

(Press-News.org) RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Ryan Milton, a fourth-year doctoral student in nuclear physics at UC Riverside, has been awarded a U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Fellowship. The fellowship, which provides a $3,600 monthly stipend for one year, will support his research at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, part of Stanford University.

“My research focuses on developing and deploying AI tools to understand the behavior of protons and neutrons in nuclei,” Milton said. “Each proton and neutron is made of quarks, but we still don’t fully understand how those quarks behave within a nucleus.”

To address this problem, Milton will develop and apply novel AI-based “unbinned” analysis methods that allow scientists to extract as much information as possible from experimental data.

“I’ll be working with Dr. Ben Nachman at SLAC to further develop this method and apply it to experiments at Jefferson Lab and to simulations for the future Electron-Ion Collider, which is currently under construction at Brookhaven National Lab.”

Miguel Arratia, Milton’s advisor and an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at UCR, said Milton is on a path to becoming a leader in artificial intelligence.

“Ryan has already built software tools that make cutting-edge AI more accessible to the physics community, and his recent first-author paper on research supported by our NSF cyberinfrastructure award shows real impact,” Arratia said. “With this fellowship, Ryan will be able to take his skills to the next level at SLAC, working closely with one of the top experts in the field.”

Milton emphasized the broader impact of his AI work.

“AI is transforming how the world operates, and it is impacting our understanding of fundamental science,” he said. “With the development of our AI unbinned analysis, we will be creating useful methods for all of science. Scientists will be able to make measurements with unprecedented precision, and thereby improve our understanding of the universe.” 

Milton’s passion for the field began during his undergraduate studies at UCLA.

“I joined a research group almost by chance after taking a class with a professor whose work in nuclear physics fascinated me,” he said. “I quickly became interested in the computational side of the field. It’s exciting to use cutting-edge and fast-evolving tools to make discoveries in nuclear physics and contribute towards the impressive experiments at Brookhaven and Jefferson labs.”

Arratia said Milton has deployed advanced artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) models that have had “a real impact on the design of our future experiments.” 

“That work was supported by our Department of Energy AI grant, which enabled Ryan and other students to work at Livermore and Berkeley National Laboratories,” he said. “Now, this new fellowship will help us build a strong connection with SLAC. Overall, Ryan’s fellowship reflects the continued success of our group in developing and deploying AI/ML tools to the physical sciences.”

Milton expressed excitement at being part of a field that explores the fundamental building blocks of matter through sophisticated techniques.

“We’re constantly pushing the boundaries of what we know about the universe, and that’s a pretty inspiring thing to do every day,” he said. “The SCGSR fellowship gives me a fantastic opportunity at SLAC to learn about and create AI methods that will improve our understanding of the physical world.”

The University of California, Riverside is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment is more than 26,000 students. The campus opened a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual impact of more than $2.7 billion on the U.S. economy. To learn more, visit www.ucr.edu. 

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