Master's Thesis Defenses
"Pedro Copeto and Carolina Felgueiras, members of the NUC-RIA group at LIP, recently completed their Master’s degrees. Congratulations to our new MSc graduates."
On 19 November, Pedro Copeto, a Master’s student in Engineering Physics at NOVA FCT, defended his thesis entitled “Light Fragment Detection using Resistive Plate Chambers”. The work was carried out in collaboration with GSI and supervised by Daniel Galaviz (FCUL/LIP) and João Cruz (NOVA FCT). The examination committee included Jorge Machado (opponent, NOVA FCT), Paulo Ribeiro (chair, NOVA FCT), and Daniel Galaviz.
Within this project, Pedro developed, simulated and implemented new multidimensional reconstruction methods (MDF) for the identification of light fragments in the G249 experiment of the R³B collaboration. The results demonstrate the potential of Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) to evolve from timing and proton detectors into active fragment-reconstruction devices within the R³B collaboration and the FAIR facility.
During his Master’s degree, Pedro received support from the GSI Get_INvolved programme and ERASMUS+. He will now continue his academic path with a PhD within the R³B collaboration.
In the following month, on 15 December, Carolina Felgueiras, a Master’s student in Engineering Physics at FCUL, defended her thesis entitled “Benchmarking nRPC-based Neutron Detectors with Fast Neutrons”. The work was developed in collaboration with the LIP Coimbra neutron RPC group and supervised by Daniel Galaviz (FCUL/LIP) and Luís Margato (LIP). The examination committee included Alberto Blanco (opponent, LIP), Manuel Abreu (chair, FCUL), and Daniel Galaviz.
Her work included the production, characterisation and data analysis of neutron detectors based on Resistive Plate Chambers. These detectors, produced at LIP Coimbra, were exposed to neutron beams with energies ranging from keV to MeV at the HiSPANOS facility of the Centro Nacional de Aceleradores (CNA), Seville. Simulations based on GEANT4 were performed using the TOPAS and ANTS3 codes, confirming the experimental results.
During her Master’s degree, Carolina was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which supported the final year of her studies.