Prize Recipient

Andre Lessa
University of Oklahoma

Citation:

"For outstanding research as graduate student and a dissertation that explores the cosmological consequences of solving the strong CP problem via the Peccei-Quinn mechanism in the context of supersymmetric models."

Background:

Dr. Andre Lessa was born in Brazil and attended the Campinas State University, where he received his Bachelor Degree in Physics. Shortly after his graduation he joined the graduate program at the same institution, where he received his Master's Degree in Physics in 2007. In the same year he was awarded a four year Fulbright Scholarship to continue his studies in the US. After attending one year at Florida State University, Dr. Lessa transferred to University of Oklahoma, where he obtained his PhD in Physics in 2011. During his graduate studies, Dr. Lessa published thirteen papers on the phenomenology of supersymmetric models and axion cosmology and was awarded the George R. Kalbfleisch Scholarship for Academic Excellence in High Energy Physics Research from the University of Oklahoma in 2010. Currently Dr. Lessa holds a Post-Doc position at the Sao Paulo University in Brazil, where he continues his research on supersymmetry at the LHC and axion physics.