It is with shock and great sadness that we have learned of the sudden passing of our friend and colleague, Dr Paul Dervan. Paul was a senior researcher and expert in silicon detector systems, working in the Liverpool Particle Physics Research Group.
Paul did his undergraduate degree at Surrey University after which he worked on his PhD at Brunel University, focussing on the groundbreaking CCD vertex detector programme for the SLD experiment at SLAC. During his first postdoc position at UCL Paul worked on the OPAL experiment at CERN developing searches for anomalous gauge boson couplings, whilst at the same time also contributing to detector development R&D for the MINOS experiment. In 2001, Paul joined the ATLAS experiment, initially with the University of Sheffield and from 2005 with the University of Liverpool.
On ATLAS, Paul worked initially on irradiation studies as part of the sensors R&D programme for the SCT detector. He was also deeply involved in the development of the system test at CERN for the SCT detector. In Liverpool, Paul established the extensive read-out and control systems, capable of testing all 132 silicon strip modules on any of the nine SCT endcap-C disks built in the then brand-new Liverpool Semiconductor Detector Centre. This work was repeated at CERN, testing the full Endcap-C detector prior to its installation in ATLAS. Paul continued to work on the SCT tracker, contributing to many aspects that are critical to its successful operation.
Paul was involved from the early start in detector development work for the upgrades of the ATLAS trackers for the High-Luminosity LHC. For the ATLAS pixel tracker upgrade, Paul worked extensively on the serial powering tests to operate a chain of ATLAS pixel modules. Thanks to his work, Liverpool first demonstrated the viability of this novel powering scheme. Paul furthermore developed automatic, AI based, techniques for the visual inspection of the many pixel hybrids and strip modules required during the tracker upgrade build programme. Paul's work has been key in ensuring the ATLAS experiment benefits, now and in many years to come, from silicon detectors that deliver the consistently high-quality data upon which all physics analyses rely.
It was always a great pleasure to work with Paul. He will be greatly missed by all of us as a valued colleague, a great particle physicist and silicon detector expert, and as a very dear friend. Our thoughts are with Paul's family.