D. Matos Figueiredo

I am an experimental particle physicist with over fifteen years of continuous involvement in large-scale international research infrastructures, primarily at CERN. Since 2007, I have contributed to the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment, one of the flagship projects of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). My work spans physics analysis, detector development, and mission-critical operational responsibilities, placing me at the interface between scientific innovation and experimental reliability. My research is internationally recognized within the CMS Collaboration and the forward physics community. I have contributed to more than 900 peer-reviewed publications as a CMS author, including landmark results such as the first observation of proton-tagged dilepton production at the electroweak scale and searches for new physics using the missing-mass technique with forward protons. These results are widely cited and form the basis for current and future searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. A defining aspect of my career has been the development of novel experimental techniques for the study of rare proton–proton interactions. During my MSc and PhD, I contributed to the first measurements of hard diffractive processes at CMS, developing analysis strategies that were later adopted by the collaboration and included in CERN Yellow Reports and Technical Design Reports. In recent years, my scientific focus has shifted toward central exclusive and semi-exclusive processes using the CMS Precision Proton Spectrometer (PPS). I played a leading role in the development of the missing-mass analysis framework, enabling searches for high-mass invisible final states that are complementary to conventional missing-energy approaches. Since 2018, I have held formal leadership roles within the CMS-PPS project, including Head of Data Acquisition and Operations and, more recently, Convener of the PPS Phase-2 electronics upgrade for the High-Luminosity LHC. In these roles, I am responsible for the design, operation, and long-term sustainability of detector systems that operate continuously under demanding conditions. These responsibilities require independent decision-making, coordination of international teams, and direct interaction with CMS management. They demonstrate my ability to lead complex scientific and technical projects beyond a purely service-oriented role. My career has been inherently international, with long-term scientific integration at CERN and collaborations across Europe and Latin America.