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(Mostly in French)
Alain BUYS
Born on June 21st, 1962 at Etterbeek (Belgium)
Married on August 14th, 1998 in Mons (Belgium)
Present position:
Université de Mons
Centre d'Informatique
Bâtiment VI - Avenue du Champ de Mars, 25
B-7000 Mons
+32 (0)65 37 33 62
+32 (0)65 37 30 79
Alain.Buys@umons.ac.be
Previous position (until 29.02.1996):
CERN fellow - PPE division -
CH-1211 Geneva 23
| Nature | Year(s) | Results |
|---|---|---|
| Grade légal | ||
| Candidature en sciences physiques |
1980-1982 | Grande distinction Grande distinction |
| Licence en sciences physiques |
1982-1984 | Grande distinction Grande distinction |
| Agrég. Ens. Sec. Sup. en sciences physiques |
1983-1984 | Grande distinction |
| Doctorat en sciences physiques |
1991-1992 | Plus grande distinction |
| Grade scientifique | ||
| Certificat en informatique |
1984-1985 | Plus grande distinction |
| Certificat approfondi en informatique |
1985-1986 | Grande distinction |
Etude de quelques inégalités de corrélation pour des systèmes ferromagnétiques, carried out under the supervision of Pr. Ph. de Gottal in the Statistical Physics and Probabilities Department, awarded by a travel grant from the Belgian «Ministère de l'Education Nationale».
Elaboration sur IBM PC d'un logiciel d'aide à la décision en matière d'économies d'énergie dans les bâtiments, carried out under the supervision of Pr. P. Dufour in the Computer Science Department.
Dissertation for the Doctorate of Science:
Etude expérimentale de la désintégration des mésons charmés D°,D± et DS± au SPS, under the supervision of Pr. F. Grard in the Quantum Mechanics and Elementary Particles Department.
Supplementary thesis:
Les déterminants de Wendt permettent d'étudier le «premier cas» de la conjecture de Fermat, under the supervision of Dr. C. Radoux (Number theory).
1.10.1984 - 31.11.1985
Assistant
in the Statistical Physics and
Probabilities Department of the College of Sciences at
University of Mons,
replacing
Mr. J. De Coninck, on leave.
My work involved tutorials in Probability Theory, Statistics,
Analytical Mechanics, Statistical Physics and research in
Non-equilibrium Physics. I also gave Chemistry students tutorials in
Analytical Mechanics for
Pr. R. Dagonnier.
1.12.1985 - 31.11.1986
Position in the same Faculty for one year, in the computing staff of Pr. P. Dufour. My work included developing expert-system tools for studying energy consumption savings in public buildings, in a collaboration between the University and the «Ministère de la Région Wallonne».
I held the two positions described above in parallel with my
studies in computer science.
1.12.1986 - 31.11.1993
Grant from the Belgian
Inter-university
Institute for High Energy Physics (IIHE),
in the Quantum Mechanics and Elementary Particles Department.
During this period, I wrote my thesis
in elementary particle physics
under the supervision of Pr. F. Grard.
The major part of my work took place in the
WA82 collaboration, which recorded
data from 1987 to 1989 at the
Omega spectrometer at the CERN SPS.
Its goal was a high statistics study of charm hadroproduction,
using a silicon strip microvertex detector to trigger on the
impact parameter.
My main contribution to this experiment concerned the
identification, using a «Ring Imaging
CHerenkov» detector (RICH), of the particles
produced in charm decay.
I participated in the permanent survey of the quality of the data
recorded with the detector and developed,
on a G64 microcomputer,
monitoring programs
needed for its operation.
I was responsible for the entire data analysis chain,
from the alignment of the RICH
to the organization of the
exploitation of the identification tools.
I also took part in
the development of the general analysis chain of charm physics.
Among the different physics topics studied by the collaboration,
I personally studied the charmed meson decay, subject of my
Doctoral thesis. After my thesis,
I was awarded the title of «Chargé de recherche»
(decree of 19.07.91 relative to
the career of scientific researchers), with a subsequent increase
of my IIHE grant salary, effective February 1, 1993.
During March 1993,
I also obtained my inscription on the qualification list
of
«maître de conférences» in France
(«Section 29 - Constituants élémentaires»).
1.12.1993 - 29.02.1996
CERN fellow
in the PPE division.
The technical part of my work took place in the exploitation
of the data recorded with the RICH detectors of
DELPHI.
I played an active role in the on-line survey of
the detector and of the quality of the data recorded.
In particular, the safety of the
Barrel RICH,
operated with
a gaseous C5F12 radiator and with TMAE, is strongly
linked to the reliability of its heating to 40°C.
I was responsible for this system and for
the regulation software
using G64 microcomputers connected
to the general DELPHI slow-control system.
Its performance was surveyed over several years and
upgrades have been carried out
in collaboration
with the PPE-TA2 group, which ensures the hardware maintenance.
In the off-line analysis chain, I was
responsible for the alignment of the Barrel RICH detector, in
collaboration with Wolfgang Adam
(for the reconstruction and analysis software for the RICHes)
and the Uppsala group (for the Forward RICH alignment).
I also developed, together with H. Fürstenau and B. Erzen,
the «DST-fixing» package for both Barrel and Forward RICHes.
Its purpose was to include at the «Data Summary Tape» level
the effects which could not be taken into account at the
reconstruction step. The real data are subjected to fine tuning,
including corrections for the Cherenkov angle, expected
amount of signal and expected
error dependencies as a function of several parameters.
In the simulated data, further corrections have to be applied
to obtain a better agreement with the real ones. In particular,
for the liquid radiator data,
the reconstructed ring positions have to be randomly varied in
order to better reproduce systematic effects
due to the higher sensitivity to the tracking errors.
In general, this work is crucial for the use of the data
in the study of
physics channels.
It also contributes to a better understanding
of the behaviour of the detectors.
Very good single-photon
resolutions are achieved, consistent with expectations:
4 mrad for the barrel gas radiator, with practically no systematics,
13 mrad for the barrel liquid radiator.
1.03.1996
I was then appointed as assistant at the Computer Center at the University of Mons (CCI), as «premier assistant» since October 1996 and «chef de travaux» since October 2001 At first, I was in charge of the management of the new IBM/SP2 (RS/6000) computer, in particular of the «migration» of the users of the previous central system and their education for using the new one. In this context, I gave lectures and tutorials concerning, among other topics, Unix basics, e-mail, etc. I am currently in charge of the management of the RS/6000 computers. I am also involved in the organisation of the local use of Internet resources and, to some extent, in the support for PC users. This includes
During my studies, I became acquainted with various computers and operating systems (working often on the VM system of the University, developing in PASCAL on VAX/VMS a symbolic deriving tool in the framework of lectures on programming languages during my graduate computing studies, using symbolic calculators -REDUCE, DERIVE- on VM and PC for my supplementary thesis in number theory).
I worked intensively with a wide variety of computing tools available at CERN (PATCHY, FORTRAN compiler, database management, HBOOK, MINUIT, PAW, ZEBRA, for example) under different operating systems (MVS, VM, VAX/VMS and Unix), for analyzing the data recorded and using them to achieve the physics goals of the experiments in which I participated.
I also contributed to the installation of some of these
CERN tools in the department of elementary particle physics
at the University of Mons.
As far as detector control is concerned, I programmed on G64 microcomputers, mainly using PASCAL (and Basic, to a lesser extent). I also programmed (in FORTRAN) parts of the code exploiting the G64 data on the DELPHI «on-line» VAX workstations.
During my stay at CERN, I acquired the knowledge of Unix needed for my work, and was involved in moving DELPHI RICH analysis packages to Hewlett Packard, Digital Alpha workstations and IBM/SP2 processors operating under Unix.
My work at the Computer Center at the University of Mons is increasing my experience in a variety of programming languages and operating systems.
(1.12.1986 - 31.11.1993)
Numerous stays at CERN (data-taking periods, collaboration meetings).
16.09.90 - 29.9.90
CERN Summer school at
Mallorca (as graduate student).
14.06.90 - 20.06.90
Stay at Fermilab (Chicago)
to give a
seminar entitled
«RICH Particle
Identification in Charm Hadroproduction».
21.06.90 - 23.06.90
«Physics in Collision» conference
(Duke, North Carolina).
22.03.92 - 28.03.92
Contribution «New Results from Charm Hadroproduction Experiment WA82»
to the «Rencontres de Moriond».
18.06.93 - 20.06.93
«Physics in Collision»
(Heidelberg, Germany)
21.06.93 - 25.06.93
Contribution
«Results on Charmed Meson Decay from the WA82 Experiment
at the CERN Omega Spectrometer»
at the «HADRON '93» conference (Como, Italy).
(Also
presented to the
meeting of the Belgian Physics Society, Leuven,
28.05.93).
26.05.94 - 27.05.94
Meeting of the Belgian Physics Society
in Mons
(poster «The RICH Detector of DELPHI and its Use for Studying
Charm Physics»).
20.07.94 - 27.07.94
ICHEP conference (Glasgow, Scotland).
12.06.95 - 16.06.95
Talk entitled «RICH in Operating
Experiments»
given
at the International
Workshop on RICH detectors
(Uppsala, Sweden).
6.02.96 - 12.02.96 et 14.05.96 - 21.05.96
Lectures and tutorials given at the University of Mons concerning
Unix basics, e-mail, editors, etc.
7.06.96
SPLUX Users' Meeting (KULeuven):
overview of the SP2 system at UMH
18.06.96 - 21.06.96
Lectures on IBM AIX/6000 Administration (La Hulpe)
20.11.96
RS/6000 Users Group Technical Update Meeting (La Hulpe)
6.10.97 - 9.10.97
Lectures on IBM AIX/6000 Advanced Administration (La Hulpe)
6.4.99 - 12.4.99
Lectures on SQL and SQL*PLUS, PL/SQL fundamentals (Oracle, Diegem)
23.10.03
Belnet workshop on E-mail, spam, viruses
05.03.09
Belnet Federation advisory committee
Alain Buys, Alain.Buys@umons.ac.be