Brooke Russell

Assistant Professor of Physics (As of July 1, 2025)
Research focuses on massive neutrinos, their properties, interactions, and implications for beyond the Standard Model physics.
Research Areas
Nuclear Physics Experiment, Particle Physics Experiment
headshot
(617) 253-8538
Office: 26-541
Affiliated Center(s): Laboratory for Nuclear Science

Research Interests

Brooke Russell is an experimental nuclear and particle physicist. Her research focuses on elucidating the landscape of beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics brought about by massive neutrinos. Neutrinos are the most abundant massive particle in the universe. Ubiquity notwithstanding, much remains unknown about their underlying properties. With the DUNE experiment, the Russell group aims to make high precision measurements of neutrino mixing to provide unique insights into fundamental neutrino properties.

The Russell group research focus also highlights the mystery of the particle nature of dark matter. The Russell group is searching for low mass particle dark matter using quasiparticle detectors in the underground Kamioka Cryolab. Leveraging quantum sensing device readout coupled to varying detector payloads, the Russell group is targeting model-complementary dark matter searches below the GeV-scale, a region of parameter space largely eluded by traditional weakly interacting massive particle detection limits.

Biographical Sketch

Brooke Russell earned her A.B. in physics from Princeton University in 2011 and her Ph.D. in physics from Yale University in 2020. She was an Owen Chamberlain Postdoctoral Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley Lab from 2020 thru 2023. In 2024, she joined MIT as the Neil and Jane Pappalardo Special Fellow in Physics. Brooke will join the MIT Physics faculty in July 2025 as an assistant professor.

In the news
Two scientists in hard hats working on the 2x2 prototype detector for the DUNE near detector.
In the news

DUNE Scientists Observe First Neutrinos with Prototype Detector at Fermilab

DUNE Scientists Observe First Neutrinos with Prototype Detector at Fermilab

Awards & Honors

  • 2024-2026 // The Neil and Jane Pappalardo Special Fellow in Physics
  • 2021 // L'Oréal For Women in Science (FWIS) Fellowship
  • 2020 to 2023 // Owen Chamberlain Postdoctoral Fellow in the Physics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • 2019 // Gertrude Scharff-Goldhaber Prize, Brookhaven Women in Science (BWIS)

Key Publications

  • J. Asaadi, D.A. Dwyer, B. Russell, Novel Liquid Argon Time-Projection Chamber Readouts, Annu. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 74 (2024) 529.

  • P. Abratenko et al. (MicroBooNE Collaboration), Neutrino event selection in the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber using Wire-Cell 3-D imaging, clustering and charge-light matching, JINST  16 (2021) P06043 [arXiv:2011.01375].

  • C. Adams et al. (MicroBooNE Collaboration), Ionization Electron Signal Processing in Single Phase LArTPCs I. Algorithm Description and Quantitative Evaluation with MicroBooNE Simulation,  JINST 13 (2018) P07006 [arXiv:1802.08709].