Lesya Shchutska

EPFL SB IPHYS LPHE-LS
BSP 616 (Cubotron UNIL)
Rte de la Sorge
1015 Lausanne

Current Work

Our research is focused on testing the boundaries of the Standard Model of particle physics and on looking for new phenomena which might explain unanswered puzzles in the fundamental description of the Universe. The examples of such puzzles would be dark matter nature, matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe or very small but non-zero neutrino masses.

The main instrument for these tasks is the LHCb detector at CERN, where the analyses of the data collected in the LHC proton-proton collisions are ongoing. We are also conducting searches for heavy neutral leptons with the CMS experiment at CERN in the context of the ERC Starting grant "MajorNet", ID 758316. At the same time, the R&D activities for future facilities and experiments which exploit complementary strategies are taking place. In particular, we contribute to the operation of the SND@LHC detector, to the R&D for the fixed target program with the SHiP detector to be built at the CERN beam-dump facility at the SPS, and to the R&D for the Future Circular Collider at CERN.

Membership in the international collaborations

  • 2025-present: FCC studies collaboration
  • 2023-present: DRD4 collaboration
  • 2020-present: SND@LHC collaboration
  • 2019-present: LHCb collaboration
  • 2014-present: SHiP collaboration
  • 2012-2019: CMS collaboration
  • 2008-2012: PEBS collaboration
  • 2005-2008: LHCb collaboration

Professionals experiences

Assistant Professor of Experimental Particle Physics

Senior research associate (Oberassistentin)

Scientific research associate (postdoc)

PhD student-assistant

Education

Experimental particle physics

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2008 – 2012 EPFL
Directed by Tatsuya Nakada

Applied physics and mathematics

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2006 – 2008 Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
Directed by Andrey Golutvin

Applied physics and mathematics

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2002 – 2006 Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
Directed by Andrey Golutvin

Awards

Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (as a member of the CMS and LHCb collaborations at CERN)

Breakthrough Prize Foundation

2025

Swiss Science Prize Latsis

SNSF on behalf of the International Latsis Foundation

2023

Young Experimental Physicist Prize

High Energy and Particle Physics Division of the EPS

2019

LPC Distinguished Researcher

LHC Physics center, Fermi National Laboratory, Batavia IL, USA

2016

CHIPP Prize for the best PhD student in experimental or theoretical particle physics

Swiss Institute of Particle Physics (CHIPP)

2015

Publications with a significant contribution

Research

Current Research Fields

Teaching & PhD

PhD Students

Elena De Santis, Yiyang Ding, Pierre Mayencourt, Spencer Collaviti, Raphaël van Laak, Zhibin Yang, Vasilisa Guliaeva, Anni Kauniskangas, Valerii Kholoimov

Past EPFL PhD Students

Sara Celani, Serhii Cholak, Joanna Malgorzata Wanczyk, Mascellani Anna, Sonia Amina Bouchiba, Paul De Bryas

Courses

Particle physics II

PHYS-416

This course aims to make students familiar and comfortable with the main concepts of particle physics, providing a clear connection between the theory and relevant experimental results, including the most recent ones from modern particle physics experiments.