Dr Patrick Ryan Knights MSci, PhD

Dr Patrick Ryan Knights

School of Physics and Astronomy
Assistant Professor

Contact details

Email
p.r.knights@bham.ac.uk
Address
Physics West Building
School of Physics and Astronomy
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Patrick is an experimental particle physicist working towards the direct detection of dark matter. Patrick’s work spans a variety of different experimental approaches, with one focus area being the detection of light (sub-GeV) dark matter particle candidates.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Experimental Particle Physics, Université Paris-Saclay and University 麻豆精选, 2021
  • MSci (Hons) in Physics, University 麻豆精选, 2017

Biography

Patrick completed his PhD in 2021, jointly awarded by the Université Paris-Saclay and the University 麻豆精选, for work as part of the NEWS-G direct dark matter search experiment. He has been the run coordinator for the NEWS-G experiment since 2022.

Since completing his PhD, Patrick’s work has continued to focus on direct dark matter detection and now spans several technologies including gaseous and liquid noble element particle detectors, and ultra-pure materials. He is involved in several different experimental and R&D efforts, including NEWS-G, the MIGDAL experiment, and the XLZD consortium. Much of his work is focussed on next-generation experiments, including proposed experiments to be hosted at the Boulby Underground Laboratory – the UK’s deep underground science facility. This includes the proposed DarkSPHERE and XLZD experiments.

Patrick was awarded the 2023 Institute of Physics Astroparticle Physics Group Early Career Award for ‘contributions to direct dark matter searches, including R&D on spherical proportional counters for the NEWS-G experiment and low-radioactivity techniques.’

Teaching

  • Year 2 Laboratories and Projects
  • Year 4 Projects
  • PhD supervision

Postgraduate supervision

Direct dark matter detection (and related) experiments (e.g. NEWS-G, MIGDAL, XLZD)

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Arora, MM, Balogh, L, Beaufort, C, Brossard, A, Chapellier, M, Clarke, J, Corcoran, EC, Coquillat, J-M, Dastgheibi-Fard, A, Deng, Y, Durnford, D, Garrah, C, Gerbier, G, Giomataris, I, Giroux, G, Gorel, P, Gros, M, Gros, P, Guillaudin, O, Hoppe, EW, Katsioulas, I, Kelly, F, Knights, P, Lautridou, P, Makowski, A, Manthos, I, Martin, RD, Matthews, J, McCallum, HM, Meaadows, H, Millins, L, Muraz, J-F, Neep, T, Nikolopoulos, K, Panchal, N, Piro, M-C, Rowe, N, Santos, D, Savvidis, G, Savvidis, I, Spathara, D, Fernandez, FVDS & Ward, R 2025, '', Physical Review Letters, pp. 1-7.

Herd, D, Katsioulas, I, Knights, P, Manthos, I, Matthews, J, Millins, L, Neep, T, Nikolopoulos, K & Rogers, G 2024, '', Journal of Instrumentation, vol. 19, no. 1, P01018.

Knights, P, Sekiya, H, Katsioulas, I, Nikolopoulos, K, Kanzawa, K & Giomataris, I 2024, '', Journal of Instrumentation, vol. 19, no. 10, P10015.

Giomataris, I, Katsioulas, I, Knights, P, Manthos, I, Neep, T, Nikolopoulos, K, Papaevangelou, T & Ward, R 2023, '', Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research. Section A. Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors, vol. 1045, 167590.

Katsioulas, I, Knights, P & Nikolopoulos, K 2022, '', Astroparticle Physics, vol. 141, 102707.

Giomataris, I, Gros, M, Katsioulas, I, Knights, P, Mols, J, Neep, T, Nikolopoulos, K, Savvidis, G, Savvidis, I, Shang, L, Ward, R & Zhou, Y 2020, '', Journal of Instrumentation, vol. 15, no. 11, pp. P11023-P11023.

Katsioulas, I, Knights, P, Matthews, J, Neep, T, Nikolopoulos, K, Owen, R & Ward, R 2020, '', Journal of Instrumentation, vol. 15, no. 6, C06013.

Nikolopoulos, K, Tungate, G & Knights, P 2018, '', European Journal of Physics.

Nikolopoulos, K, Tungate, G & Knights, P 2018, '', European Journal of Physics, vol. 39, no. 2, 025203.