Andrey Loginov

Andrey Loginov: 1977-2016

It is with great sorrow that we report that Andrey Loginov passed away April 14th after a brief illness. Andrey was an Associate Research Scientist at Yale University, working on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

Andrey was born in 1977 in Tomsk, Russia. He received his B.S., M.S. and PhD from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) on research at the Collider Detector at Fermilab, supervised jointly by A. Rostovtsev from ITEP and H. Frisch from the University of Chicago. His PhD thesis consisted of searching for phenomena not predicted by the Standard Model in events with a high transverse momentum photon, electron or muon, and missing transverse energy, a final-state signature that encompasses many possible unknown but plausible sources of gauge bosons and/or top quarks. After getting his degree, he then continued exploring possible new processes involving the top quark, leading to the first detection of radiative top quark production, i.e. a pair of top quarks accompanied by a photon, at that time the first of interesting higher-order signatures involving the newly discovered top quark.

Although still a graduate student, at CDF he was put in charge of the Collaboration’s event display, an essential but exceptionally complex tool for understanding what is really going on in the many diverse subsystems of a big modern collider detector. Andrey’s remarkable clarity of thought and his speed in execution were already apparent.

Andrey joined Yale University in 2006 to begin working on the ATLAS experiment at the LHC at CERN. He immediately took an active role in the installation and commissioning of the ATLAS Transition Radiation Tracker, becoming the Run Coordinator for the system in 2011 and continuing until his death.

Andrey’s interest in the top quark and rare processes involving leptons continued in leadership roles in the ATLAS Collaboration. As Top Cross Section Working Group Co-convener from 2009-2011, he led the effort to establish the top signal at the LHC with first data, also serving as co-editor of the top ‘rediscovery’ (i.e. in Europe) ATLAS paper. He then returned to the topics of his thesis, leading a team within ATLAS working on the measurement and comparison with Standard Model predictions of the rare radiative processes top quark pair plus photon, top quark pair plus Z-boson, and in particular top quark pair plus Higgs boson. At the time of his death he was working on measuring the Higgs self-coupling through HH production detected as a pair of bottom quarks and a pair of photons.

Andrey was well-known for his remarkable dedication to his work. His friends, of whom there were many, also knew him as a great instigator of fun. His natural leadership extended into his social life where he showed a talent for organizing memorable social events that built community across the physics world and the arts world, celebrated accomplishments, and were very special in character.

As a gifted photographer Andrey captured many of these moments. The remarkable range of his photographs of sports, fashion, drama, and friendship reveal his deep interest in and love of people. Andrey would want us to celebrate his life, not mourn his passing, but his friends and colleagues will surely miss him dearly.