Hello, I am Pei-Luan Tai, and I am from Taiwan. You can just call me "Tai". I earned my Ph.D. in physics in 2016, and then I moved to Oak Ridge National Lab to do postdoctoral research. Currently, I am a software engineer. This small site provides tutorials for my created software programs or other programs like CERN ROOT, Xmgrace, and more. It also presents the supplemental information for my CV.
My CV (pdf) 2016, May

Education:
2010 - 2016 Summer
Ph.D in Physics, Florida State University.
Tallahassee, Florida State, USA.
GPA: 3.97 / 4.00


2001 - 2006
B.S. in Physics, with minor in Economics.
National Tsing-Hua University.
Hsin-chu city, Taiwan
GPA: 3.78 / 4.00


I joined the experimental nuclear physics group at FSU since 2011, and I have worked with Dr. Samuel Tabor as his research assistant since then. My graduate study is focus on γ-ray spectroscopy for nuclear structure.



Working experience:

2016 Aug. - 2018 Aug. (2 yrs)
Post-Doctoral Associate for Dept. of Physics at Rutgers University
Stationing at Oak Ridge National Lab, USA.
⚫ I worked for Prof. Jolie Cizewski, and analyzed the data from an 86Kr, 84Se(p,d) experiment at NSCL to study the neutron-hole states evolution near the N=50 shell closure. The main goal of this work was to extract the spectroscopic factors for the neutron hole states of 85Kr and 83Se. The charged ejectiles were measured and identified by HiRA (The High Resolution Array) and recoils were analyzed by the S800 spectrograph.



2018 Sep. - 2019 Nov. (1 yr)
Project Leader Engineer, Physics Simulation Group, RealBeam Technology
Taipei, Taiwan.
⚫ I worked as a software engineer for a start-up company whose goal is to develop a commercial GPU-based dose-verification application for proton therapy for cancer treatment. I established physics processes used in proton-therapy dose simulations, such as the creation of the secondary particles, multiple Coulomb scattering, stopping power data, etc... I built Geant4 applications for analyzing CT images and voxelizing materials , to compare the results between Geant4's and our development.


2019 Nov. - now
Project Leader Engineer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company
Hsinchu, Taiwan.
⚫ doing simulations and developing tools.



Highlighted Skill Sets

For Research:

For Speaking Language:

For Programming Language:
Dissertation:

γ-ray Spectroscopy of 31Si by 18O(18O, αnγ) Reaction

Advisor: Dr. Samuel Tabor

Abstract:
This work presents a comprehensive γ-ray spectroscopic study to the higher spin structure of 31Si, including its excitation energies, spins, and branching ratios, along with the shell model discussions. 31Si was produced through the 18O(18O, αn) reaction at the beam energy of 25 MeV, which preferentially populates the higher spin states. The α particles from the reaction were detected in the Microball detector and the multiple γ-ray coincidences were detected by GAMMASPHERE. The 31Si recoil energies and angles were event-by-event kinematically reconstructed by using the information of the energies and angles of the α evaporations detected by Microball. The kinematic correction led to a better Doppler correction and allowed us to discover 26 new states and 49 newly-observed γ transitions in total. 15 γ- decaying states above the neutron separation energy were identified, and two highest γ-decaying states are at the energies 9323- and 9216-keV. Spin and parity assignments are based on γ-ray angular distribution analysis, DCO ratio analysis, branching ratios, and shell model predictions. For the positive-parity states predicted by the shell model calculations using USDA and WBP-a interactions agree well with the measured ones. But for the cross-shell states, the shell model calculations have RMS around 400-500 keV based on testing the lowest three measured negative parity states.


(Download link through FSU's DigiNole )


Publications:

As The First Author:
Cross-shell excitations in 31Si

P.-L. Tai, S. L. Tabor, R. S. Lubna, K. Kravvaris, P. C. Bender, Vandana Tripathi, A. Volya, M. P. Carpenter, R. V. F. Janssens, T. Lauritsen, E. A. McCutchan, S. Zhu, R. M. Clark, P. Fallon, S. Paschalis, M. Petri, A. O. Macchiavelli, W. Reviol, D. G. Sarantites (PhysRevC 96, 014323)

Published Date: 28 July 2017




As A Co-Author:
Intruder configurations of excited states in the neutron-rich isotopes 33P and 34P

R. Lubna et al. (accepted to PRC)

For this study, I prepared the γ-γ matrices for R. Lubna, where the event-by-event Doppler correction was used. The advanced Doppler correction improved significantly the γ-ray resolution, leading to many new states and new γ rays. I also assisted her to perform the angular distribution analysis, and wrote a GUI interface for DSAM analysis for facilitating her analysis.




Direct Reaction Measurements Using GODDESS

S.D. Pain et al. (Physics Procedia 90C 2017)

Published Date: 2017

My contribution mostly comes from the data analysis. I and Alex Lepailleur analyzed the 134Xe(d,pγ) data using GAMMASPHERE and ORRUBA detector.




Complete spectroscopy of 211Po below 2.0 MeV via the (α, n) reaction

J. R. Cottle, Vandana Tripathi, B. A. Brown, B. Abromeit, J. M. Allmond, M. Anastasiou, L. T. Baby, J. S. Baron, P. D. Cottle, R. Dungan, T. C. Hensley, K. W. Kemper, R. S. Lubna, N. Rijal, E. Rubino, S. L. Tabor, P.-L. Tai, K. Villafana, and I. Wiedenhoever (Phys. Rev. C 95, 064323)

Published Date: 23 June 201y

My main contribution to this study is to set up the experiment.




High-spin states in 29Al and 27Mg

R. Dungan, S. L. Tabor, R. S. Lubna, A. Volya, Vandana Tripathi, B. Abromeit, D. D. Caussyn, K. Kravvaris, and P.-L. Tai (PhysRevC.94.064305)

Published Date: 5 December 2016


My main contribution to this study is to set up the experiment, meanwhile I involved the regular data analysis discussions with R.Dungan.



Radiative Decay of Neutron-Unbound Intruder States in 19O

R.Dungan, S.L. Tabor, Vandana Tripathi, A.Volya, K.Kravvaris, B.Abromeit, D.D.Caussyn, S.Morrow, J.J. Parker IV, P.-L.Tai, and J.VonMoss (PhysRevC.93.021302)

Published Date: 22 February 2016


My main contribution to this study is to set up the experiment. R.Dungan and I discussed his new founding together. We utilized three Ge Clover detectors and FSU4, FSU7, PITT5, ORNL1,3,4, and 5 single crystal Ge detectors to registered the γ rays. Each detector has its own BGO system as well. Two Si crystals were used as a E-ΔE detector set at the downstream, for performing particle identification. My calibration codes provided energy calibrations via the 152Eu γ-ray spectrum. The data is taken by the PIXIE-16 digital data acquisition system. The event files eventually were sorted into the ev2 file format. This experiment was one of the γ campaign series, and later the γ experiment station was undergone construction. Until March 2016, our lab had other γ-ray experiments. ( the new nickname: x array)




Higher spin structures in 21F and 25Na

J. M. VonMoss, R. Dungan, M.P. Kuchera, , S. L. Tabor, Vandana Tripathi, A. Volya, B. Abromeit, P.C. Bender, D.D. Caussyn, R. Lubna, S. Miller, J.J. Parker IV, and P.-L. Tai. (PhysRevC.92. 034301)

Published Date: 3 September 2015


The data of this study is from multiple experiments performed at FSU. My contribution to this study was to set up the experiments. At the time when I just joined the FSU experimental nuclear physics group, I also studied 25Na for a short period of time, and then I switched to 33P, and then finally devoted most of the time to 31Si. Occasionally J. M. VonMoss and I discussed his level scheme. I assisted and instructed J. M. VonMoss how to run DSAM code and calculate the stopping power. Also, the figures of the shell model results in this paper were generated from my program.




Split Isobaric Analog State in 55Ni: Case of Strong Isospin Mixing

Vandana Tripathi, S. L. Tabor, A. Volya, S. N. Liddick, P. C. Bender, N. Larson, C. Prokop, S Suchyta, P.-L. Tai, and J. M. VonMoss. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 262501)

Published Date: 26 December 2013


This β-decay experiment was performed at NSCL using SeGA array for investigating the decay of exotic 55Cu. My main contribution to this study is to set up Ge DSSD detectors for the experiment. For this experiment, we made several trips to NSCL to set up. There were one time for vacuum issue and one time for accelerator issue. At the third time, we finally made it.




High efficiency beta-decay spectroscopy using a planar germanium double-sided strip detector

N. Larson, S.N. Liddick, M. Bennett, A. Bowe, A. Chemey, C. Prokop, A. Simon, A. Spyrou, S. Suchyta, S.J. Quinn, S.L. Tabor, P.-L. Tai, V.Tripathi, J.M. Vonmoss (Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Volume 727, 2013, Pages 59-64)

Published Date: 1 November 2013


This is the first-ever publication having my name on it. At this time, I was a just second-year inexperienced graduate student. My main contribution to this study was to set up Ge DSSD detectors for the experiment. This is the same β-decay experiment that Dr. Vandana Tripathi purposed.




GRETINA as a Compton Polarimeter

S. Tabor et al. (in preparation)

Around Dec. 2014, We performed an 18O+18O experiment at ANL using GRETINA and the Phoswich Wall detector (PW). The goal is to probe the polarization of some states in 33P, 34P, and 31Si. My main contribution was to merge the two data sets from GRETINA and PW and to perform the preliminary analysis. Due to 31Si was not produced as much as what we originally expected, I only briefly analyzed this data set. I created bunches of CERN ROOT scripts to perform particle identification, particle-γ time gate, and a multiplicity cut. This research is still ongoing.



Detector and Lab Experience:

At the John D. Fox Superconducting Linear Accelerator Laboratory:

Research Assistant

Date: 2011 summer -- 2016 summer

Participated in several γ-ray spectroscopy experiments using FSU HPGe array.

Figure: (Left) FSU Tandem accelerator. (Right) FSU HPGe array at the old experiment station.




At Argonne National Laboratory (ANL):

Experimentalist

Date: Dec 2014

Participated in a 18O+18O experiment using GRETINA and the Phoswich Wall detector (PW)

Figure: (Left) GRETINA and the PW detector. (Right) installed a module.




At National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL):

Experimentalist

Date: During 2011 to 2012

Participated in a β decay experiment for 55Cu.

Multiple trips to NSCL from 2011 to 2012 for setting up experiment using DSSD.

Figure: (Left) DSSD detector and the mounting. (Right) SeGA array.


Date: During 2017 Nov.27-Dec.21

Participated in a particle transfer experiment for 84Se(d,p).

Figure (Left and Right): ORRUBA detector array, composed of Si detectors



Talks and Poster:

Contribution Talks:



Poster:

Developing a containerized Monte Carlo dose calculation engine integrated with CPU and GPU accelerated algorithms, PTCOG58, 2019, Manchester, U.K.

Exploring single-hole state evolution near the N=50 shell closure, presented at 2017 Center for Radioactive Ion Beam Studies for Stewardship Science.

γ-ray Spectroscopy of 31Si, 2013 exotic beam summer school, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California.

γ-ray Spectroscopy of 31Si, 2017 Stewardship Science Academic Programs, Naperville, Illinois.



Programming Language:
Highly Proficient:
C++, Python, Linux Bash Script

Moderately Working:
HTML, CSS

Basic:
Fortran 77/95/2003, XML, Java, Javascript, MySQL, PHP


Software Package:
Scientific general tools:
CERN ROOT, Mathematica, MATLAB


Scientific plotting tools:
Xmgrace, gnuplot, Matplotlib, Seaborn


Python library:
Tkinter, NumPy, Pandas, xml.dom, and more.


Machine learning:
Keras (DNN, RNN, CNN...) , scikit learn


Others:
git, doxygen, docker


Physics research:
Gnuscope ( Data visualization tool, it can make a gate on a γ-γ matrix).
CoSMO (Continuum Shell Model code, developed by Prof. Alexander Volya).


Physic Teaching Experience:

Lab instructor for College Physics A (PHY2053C)

Term: 2011 spring semester.


For this course, I re-wrote the lab instruction note and designed new questions to make my students have more interests to read. (my lecture example)

lab7_sample student_feedback
Figure: (left)a sample of my lab note. (right) student's feedback.



Exam Grader for College Physics A (PHY2053C)

Term: 2011 fall semester and 2015 spring semester.


Homework Grader for Nuclear Physics II (Graduate course, PHZ5307)

Term: 2014 spring semester.