Pekka K. Sinervo is an experimental particle physicist who has studied quarks,[1] gluons[2] and vector bosons[3][4][5][6] using high-energy electron and proton collisions. He is a professor of physics at University of Toronto, where he has taught and pursued research since 1990.
He is known for his contributions to the discovery of the top quark[7] and studies of its properties (see, e.g., [8][9][10]), along with collaborators in the CDF (Collider Detector at Fermilab) and ATLAS experiments. He was also a member of one of the teams that discovered the Higgs boson.[11]His earlier work involved the study of mesons with charm quarks and strange quarks, and hadrons with bottom quarks (see, e.g., [12][13][14]).He is currently working on searches for new particles (see, e.g., [15][16]) and dark matter[17] at the SNOLAB Underground Laboratory, as a member of the SuperCDMS Collaboration.[18]Sinervo served as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto[19] from 2003 to 2008, and as senior vice-president, research at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research[20] from 2009 to 2015. He has written on international research collaborations, science and Judaism, and popular science (see, e.g.,
[21][22]).He is a member of the Reform Jewish Community of Canada,[23] serving as its president from 2017 to 2021, and has served in leadership roles in the Union for Reform Judaism[24] and the World Union for Progressive Judaism.[25]He has been recognized for his contributions with appointments to numerous scientific societies[Note 1] with fellowships in the American Physical Sociey and the Royal Society of Canada recognizing his contributions to the discovery of the top quark. He was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 2018[26] for his contributions to the discoveries of the top quark and Higgs boson, and his leadership in the Canadian Jewish community.