Matthew Sievert has been a faculty member in the Department of Physics at New Mexico State University (NMSU) since 2020. He holds the position of associate professor and focuses on both experimental and theoretical high-energy nuclear physics.
Before joining NMSU, Sievert worked as a postdoctoral researcher at several institutions, including the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Rutgers University in New Jersey, Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
“I was familiar with NMSU from my time as a postdoc at LANL, and I regarded its research faculty in both experimental and theoretical nuclear physics as outstanding,” Sievert said. “The possibility to join that faculty and deepen my research activities across New Mexico were always very attractive to me.”
At NMSU, Sievert leads a large research group composed mainly of graduate students, with some undergraduate participation. He teaches various courses within the Department of Physics. These include upper-division undergraduate classes such as Math Methods and Quantum Mechanics, as well as graduate-level courses like Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Field Theory. Additionally, he supervises a smaller group of graduate students who focus on projects related to physics education research.
“I love teaching, and as a scientist, approaching my teaching efforts scientifically is the most natural thing in the world,” Sievert said. “Without a doubt, the thing I am most proud of is the accomplishments of my students. I work with dedicated, intelligent, creative, hard-working students who teach me and inspire me every day.
“I am the luckiest man in the world: I get to work on cool physics projects, together with amazing people, make a tangible difference in people’s lives and learn something new every day,” he added. “It would be a privilege to do this for the rest of my life.”
