Position/Role

Staff researcher for INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), Section of Padua (Italy).

Professional career

After completion of her Physics Diploma at the University of Padua in 1992, she pursued a PhD in Physics in 1996. Immediately after she wins a grant for continuing her studies as a post-doctoral scientist at the INFN Section in Padua. In 2008, 2012 and 2014 is awarded several grants for collaboration as a Scientific Associate at the CERN laboratory in Geneva(CH) and the Fermilab National Laboratory in Chicago (USA). Currently she is leading studies for the prospects physics measurements in the context of future projects for new particle colliders to be realised after the end of the LHC. 

Scientific results

In 1996, as a member of the CDF collaboration, observes for the first time the decay of the top quark (the heaviest fundamental particle in the Standard Model) and measures its production rate and and mass developing original analysis methods of background estimate from real data. In 2004 becomes a member of the CMS collaboration at the LHC of CERN laboratory in Geneva (CH). She has participated to the discovery of the Higgs boson in the role of responsabile of the data quality to be used for the analysis. Throughout her career Patrizia Azzi has focused her interest on particle physics and their properties to explain the fundamental law of physics. Azzi has been also coordinating several research projects: from 2002-2004 she has been leading the Top physics group for the CDF collaboration at Fermilab to plan and realise the measurements of the top quark properties during the Run 2 of the Tevatron collider, coordinating a group of about 200 physicist from all countries. As a member of the CMS experiment she has been coordinating various groups, among which the "Physics Performance and Dataset" that insured the data quality for physics in 2012/2013 and the physics group "B2G" that focuses on searches for new physics beyond the Standard Model in 2014/15. Currently she is leading the physics group that studies the future prospects for the project High Luminosity LHC that will start in 2024. 

Patrizia Azzi is also an active proponent of the Future Circular Collider project (FCC) where she studies in particular the potential for the most precise measurement of the top quark mass at a new lepton collider.

Editorial work and publications

She is author of vaste number of publication national and international, we quote here some of the most relevant: 

(2016) CMS Collaboration, Khachatryan S, [...] Azzi P, et al. Search for vectorlike charge 2/3 T quarks in pp collisions at √s=8 TeV.Physical Review D, 93:012003. 
(2014) CMS Collaboration. Search for top-quark partners with charge 5/3 in the same-sign dilepton final state.Physical Review Letters, 112:171801. 
(2014) Bicer M, [...] Azzi P, et al. First Look at the Physics Case of TLEP. The Journal of High Energy Physics, 01:164. 
(2012) The CMS Collaboration. Observation of a new boson at a mass of 125 GeV with the CMS experiment at the LHC.Physics Letters B, 716:30-61. 
(2009) CMS Tracker Collaboration, Adam W, [...] Azzi P, et al. Performance studies of the CMS Strip Tracker before installation.Journal of Instrumentation, 4. 
(1999) CDF Collaboration, Abe F, [...] Azzi P, et al. Measurement of the top quark mass with the Collider Detector at Fermilab.Physical Review Letters, 82:271-276. 
(1997) CDF Collaboration, Abe F, [...] Azzi P, et al. First observation of the all hadronic decay of t pairs. Physical Review Letters, 79:1992-1997. 
(1995) CDF Collaboration, Abe F, [...] Azzi P, et al. Observation of top quark production in p collisions. Physical Review Letters, 74:2626-2631. 
(1994) CDF Collaboration, Abe F, [...] Azzi P, et al. Evidence for top quark production in pcollisions at √s = 1.8 TeV.Physical Review Letters, 73:225-231. 
(1994) Amidei D, Azzi P, et al. The Silicon Vertex Detector of the Collider Detector at Fermilab. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A, 350:73-130.

Awards and prizes

2013 European Physical Society "High Energy and Particle Physics" Prize, for an outstanding contribution to High Energy Physics, awarded to the ATLAS and CMS collaborations, “for the discovery of a Higgs boson, as predicted by the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism”.

Position/Role

Head of Particle Physics at the University of Oxford (September 2018-to present)

Professional career

Daniela Bortoletto graduated in Physics from the University of Pavia, Italy in 1982. She earned her MA (1986) and PhD (1989) from Syracuse University. In 1989 she joined the Faculty of Purdue University as Postdoctoral Research Associate (1989-1992), Assistant Professor (1992-1995), Associate Professor (1995-2001), and Full Professor (2001). She became the Edward M. Purcell Distinguished Professor of Physics in 2010. In 2013 she joined the University of Oxford where she is now the Head of the sub department of particle physics. Daniela is passionate about increasing female participation in Physics and other sciences. She has enabled efforts aimed at giving young women the resources, motivation, and confidence to pursue careers in Physics. This includes the creation of the Purdue Women in Physics Organization, the development of Purdue Sciencescape, and leadership in the APS Conference Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP). She has taken CUWiP in the UK where the conference has been extraordinarily successful.

Scientific results

She has made important contributions to heavy flavour physics at CLEO (Cornell, USA) and CDF (Fermilab USA). She is a co-discoverer of the Higgs boson (CERN, 2012) and the top quark (CDF, Fermilab, 1995). She is currently studying the properties of the Higgs boson and searching for new physics at the LHC with the ATLAS experiment at CERN. She is also searching for new physics in very rare decays of muons with the mu3e experiment at the Paul Sherrer Institut. Daniela played an important role in the construction of the muon system for the CLEO detector, the SVX II silicon system for CDF, and the CMS Forward Pixel detector.  She was the US CMS Upgrade coordinator for over 7 years and led the activities of over 40 US Universities for the phase 1 and phase 2 upgrade of CMS. She is currently participating in the construction of the ATLAS ITK for the High Luminosity LHC, high voltage CMOS sensors, and ultra-radiation hard silicon sensors. She is the Deputy Scientific Coordinator of the Advanced European Infrastructures for Detectors at Accelerators (AIDA 2020)

Editorial work and publications

Editor of Nuclear Instrument and Methods. Author of over 1500 publications, including:

(2015) Bortoletto D, How and why silicon sensors are becoming more and more intelligent?. Journal of Instrumentation, 10(08). 
(2015) Khachatryan V, Mousa J, Tumasyan A, Bortoletto D, et al. Search for dark matter, extra dimensions, and unparticles in monojet events in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV. European Physical Journal C, 75(5):235. 
(2015) Khachatryan V, Mousa J, Tumasyan A, Bortoletto D, et al. Search for physics beyond the standard model in final states with a lepton and missing transverse energy in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV, Physical Review D, 91(9). 
(2015) Khachatryan V, Mousa J, Tumasyan A, Bortoletto D, et al. Measurement of J/ψ and ψ(2S) Prompt Double-Differential Cross Sections in pp Collisions at √s=7 TeV. Physical Review Letters, 114(19):191802. 
(2015) Ad G, Abbot B, Abdallah J, Bortoletto D, et al. Combined Measurement of the Higgs Boson Mass in pp Collisions at √s=7 and 8 TeV with the ATLAS and CMS Experiments. Physical Review Letters, 114(19):191803. 
(2015) Khachtryan V, Mousa J, Tumasyan A, Bortoletto D, et al. Observation of the rare Bs0 →µ+µ− decay from the combined analysis of CMS and LHCb data. Nature, 522(7554). 
(2015) Adam W, Bergauer T, Dragicevic M, Bortoletto D, et al. Trapping in irradiated p-on-n silicon sensors at fluences anticipated at the HL-LHC outer tracker. Journal of Instrumentation, 11(04). 
(2015) Aaltonen T, Abazov VM, Abbott B, Bortoletto D, et al. Tevatron Constraints on Models of the Higgs Boson with Exotic Spin and Parity Using Decays to Bottom-Antibottom Quark Pairs. Physical Review Letters, 114(15). 
(2015) CDF Collaboration, Aaltonen T, Amerio S, Bortoletto D, et al, Measurement of the production and differential cross sections of W + W − bosons in association with jets in p p ¯ collisions at s = 1.96 TeV. Physical Review D, 91(11). 
(2015) CDF Collaboration, Aaltonen T, Amerio S, Bortoletto D, et al. Measurement of the top-quark mass in the t t ¯ dilepton channel using the full CDF Run II data set. Physical Review, D, 92(3).

Awards and prizes

She is a fellow of the American Physical Society (2004), American Association for the Advancement of Science (2013) and the Institute of Physics (2015). She has received the Purdue University Ruth and Joel Spira for Excellence in Undergraduate Education (2004). She was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1994), the Early Career Award of the US National Science Foundation (1997) and the US NSF Career Advancement Award (1994). She has been a member of the UK STFC grants panel (2018), the UK STFC Detectors Strategic Review Panel (2018), US Particle Physics Projects Prioritization Panel (P5, 2005-2007, 2008, 2010), the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel (HEPAP, 2005-2008) to the US DOE and NSF, and the Mathematical and Physical Science Advisory Committee (MPSAC, 2008-2014) to the NSF and the chair of the Fermilab Program Advisory Committee (2014-2017).

Position/Role

Full professor of Physics at University of Milan and President of Italian Physical Society

Professional career

After graduating in Physics at University of Milan, she obtains the PhD in 1984 at University of Manitoba (Canada), which is one of the founding universities of TRIUMF of Vancouver (Canada), where she carries out her research in the field of experimental Nuclear Physics, with focus on gamma spectroscopy for nuclear structure. After returning to Italy as a researcher she spends several periods at the ORNL laboratory (USA) and the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. In Milan she becomes a full professor in 2002. Between 2005 and 2011 she is president of the National Scientific Commission of Nuclear Physics of INFN. In 2011-2015 member of the INFN Board of Directors as MIUR representative and since January 2020 she is president of SIF. She has been member and often chairperson of several international scientific committees and of evaluation panels.

Scientific results

The research which was carried out during the years concerns the study of nuclear structure with experiments using gamma spectroscopy and light and heavy ions from accelerators. This research has focused on the collective excitations of nuclei, in particular that of electric dipole type. This excitation is a probe for nuclear  properties such as shape, coupling to complex excitations that have similarities in other manybody physical systems. More recently attention has been paid to dipole vibrations in unstable nuclei with an unnatural number of protons and neutrons. These nuclei are generated in stellar explosions, and some of them are produced in the laboratory as "radioactive beams".  Knowledge of dipolar oscillations in these nuclei offers the possibility to give relevant information for the nucleosynthesis patterns of heavy nuclei.  This research therefore concerns a chapter of nuclear physics that has implications in the field of nuclear astrophysics. 

In particular,  she is currently performing investigations of nuclear properties dealing with neutron oscillations at the surface of the nucleus;  their understanding is relevant to the description of neutron stars which are themselves sources of gravitational waves. 

Over the years she has also participated in the development and construction of new scintillation and of solid state detectors highly segmented for the measurement of gamma radiation. The new detectors were designed for highly  selective  measurements that made it possible to obtain new data relevant to the understanding of nuclei in uncharted regions which have astrophysical implications.  

Editorial work and publications

Angela Bracco is editor of  the Italian Physical Society journals,  supervisory editor of the Nuclear Physics A (Elsevier) e membro dello Steering Committee di EPJ (Springer and Nature).

She is author of vaste number of publications we quote here some of the most relevant: 

(2019) Bracco, A.; Lanza E. G.; Tamii, A. Isoscalar and isovector dipole excitations: Nuclear properties from low-lying states and from the isovector giant dipole resonance.PROGRESS IN PARTICLE AND NUCLEAR PHYSICS,106: 360-433.

(2018) Morales, A. I.; Benzoni, G.; Watanabe, H.; Bracco A. et al. Is seniority a partial dynamic symmetry in the first vg(9/2) shell? PHYSICS LETTERS B, 781:706.

(2017) Nakatsuka, N.; Baba, H.; Aumann, T.; A. Bracco et al. Observation of isoscalar and isovector dipole excitations in neutron-rich O-20, PHYSICS LETTERS B768: 387.

(2017) Leoni, S.; Fornal, B.; Marginean, N.; Bracco, A. et al. Multifaceted Quadruplet of Low-Lying Spin-Zero States in Ni-66: Emergence of Shape Isomerism in Light Nuclei. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 118 , 162502.

(2015) Ceruti, S.; Camera, F.; Bracco, A.; et al. Isospin Mixing in Zr-80: From Finite to Zero Temperature. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 115, 222502.

(2016) Bocchi, G.; Leoni, S.; Fornal, B.; Bracco A. et al. The mutable nature of particle-core excitations with spin in the one-valence-proton nucleus Sb-133. PHYSICS LETTERS B 760, 273. 

(2015) Bracco, A.; Crespi, F. C. L.; Lanza, E. G. Gamma decay of pygmy states from inelastic scattering of ions. EPJA 51, 99. 

(2014) Pellegri, L.; Bracco, A.; Crespi, F. C. L.; et al. Pygmy dipole resonance in Sn-124 populated by inelastic scattering of O-17. PHYSICS LETTERS B (2014) Volume: 738, 519.

(2013) Crespi, F. C. L.; Bracco, A.; Nicolini, R.; et al. Isospin Character of Low-Lying Pygmy Dipole States in Pb-208 via Inelastic Scattering of O-17 Ions.  PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 113, 1, 012501.

(2013) Bracco, A. Concluding remarks on the EMIS2012 conference. NIM 317, 810.

(2013) Larsen, A. C.; Blasi, N.; Bracco, A.; et al. Evidence for the Dipole Nature of the Low-Energy gamma Enhancement in Fe-56,  PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 111, 242504.

Awards and prizes

Member of the European Academy 

Member of the Committee on International Scientific Affairs (CISA) dell'American Physical Society (APS)

In 2011 she received the EnergyLab Foundation Award

In 2018 she received the GENCO membership award from the GSI Exotic Nuclei Community (GSI, Laboratory, Germany)

Position/Role

Full Professor and former Vice Rector of Politecnico di Milano for the Como Campus.

Professional career

After obtaining a degree in Physics at the University of Milan in 1986, she continued her education with a PhD in Geodetic and Topographical Sciences that she obtained in 1991 at the Interuniversity Consortium of Milan, Turin and Pavia. From 1992 to 1994, she was Researcher at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, where she helped create the International Geoid Service (IGeS) of the International Geodesy Association (IAG) and became part of the IGeS Bulletin committee, becoming its chief editor. In 1994, she became a researcher at the Politecnico di Milano, and four years later an associate professor. In 1997, she founded and coordinated the Geomatics Laboratory at the Como Campus of the Politecnico di Milano. From 2006 to 2011, she was a lecturer of GIS at the Federal Polytechnic of Zurich (ETH). Since 2010, she has been Full Professor of Digital Mapping and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) at the Politecnico di Milano and from 2011 to 2016 she was Vice Rector of Politecnico for the Como Campus.

Scientific results

After obtaining a degree in Physics at the University of Milan in 1986, she continued her education with a PhD in Geodetic and Topographical Sciences that she obtained in 1991 at the Interuniversity Consortium of Milan, Turin and Pavia. From 1992 to 1994, she was Researcher at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, where she helped create the International Geoid Service (IGeS) of the International Geodesy Association (IAG) and became part of the IGeS Bulletin committee, becoming its chief editor. In 1994, she became a researcher at the Politecnico di Milano, and four years later an associate professor. In 1997, she founded and coordinated the Geomatics Laboratory at the Como Campus of the Politecnico di Milano. From 2006 to 2011, she was a lecturer of GIS at the Federal Polytechnic of Zurich (ETH). Since 2010, she has been Full Professor of Digital Mapping and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) at the Politecnico di Milano and from 2011 to 2016 she was Vice Rector of Politecnico for the Como Campus.

Editorial work and publications

Maria Antonia Brovelli is editor of the Applied Geomatics journal published by Springer, co-author of three textbooks on the statistical processing of data, of a volume on orthophotos, i.e. geometrically correct and georeferenced aerial and satellite imagery, and digital terrain models, and author of over 150 scientific publications including:

(2018) Brovelli MA, Zamboni G, A new method for the assessment of spatial accuracy and completeness of OpenStreetMap building footprints, ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 7(8), 289.

(2016) Brovelli MA, Minghini M, Moreno Sanchez R, Oliveira R. Free anD Open Source Software for Geospatial Applications (FOSS4G) to support Future Earth. International Journal of Digital Earth, 1-19.

(2016) Brovelli MA, Minghini M, Molinari ME, Mooney P. Towards an automated comparison of OpenStreetMap with authoritative road datasets. Transactions in GIS. 

(2015) Brovelli MA, Molinari ME, Hussein E, Chen J, Li R. The First Comprehensive Accuracy Assessment of GlobeLand30 at a National Level: Methodology and Results. Remote Sensing, 7(4):4191-4212. 

(2015) Brovelli MA, Minghini M, Zamboni G. Public Participation GIS: a FOSS architecture enabling field-data collection. International Journal of Digital Earth, 8(5):345-363. 

(2012) Valentini L, Brovelli MA, Zamboni G. Multi-frame and multi-dimensional historical digital cities: The Como example. International Journal of Digital Earth, 7(4):336-350. 

(2011) Brovelli MA, Giori G, Mussin M, M. Negretti M. Improving the Monitoring of the Status of the Environment Through Web Geo-services: The Example of Large Structures Supervision. Transactions in GIS, 15(2), 173-188. 

(2008) Brovelli MA, Crespi M, Fratarcangeli F, Giannone F, Realini E. Accuracy assessment of high resolution satellite imagery orientation by leave-one-out method. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 63(4):427-440. 

(2004) Brovelli MA, Cannata M, Longoni UM. LIDAR Data Filtering and DTM Interpolation Within GRASS. Transactions in GIS, 8(2), 155-174. 

(1993) Knudsen P, Brovelli MA. Collinear and cross-over adjustment of Geosat ERM and Seasat altimeter data in the Mediterranean Sea. Surveys in Geophysics, 14, 4-5:449-459. 

(1993) Rummel R, Van Gelderan M, Koop R, Schrama E, Sansò F, Brovelli MA, Migliaccio F, Sacerdote F. Spherical Harmonic Analysis of Satellite Gradiometry. Publications on Geodesy, new series, number 39, Netherland Geodetic Commission, Delft, The Netherlands.

Awards and prizes

In September 2015 she was awarded the Sol Katz Award 2015 for her contribution to Free Software and Open Source Geospatial during the FOSS4G 2015 conference in Seoul, South Korea. Maria Antonia Brovelli was one of the Directors of OSGeo (International GIS Open Foundation). She is  Chair of the working group IV / 4 "Collaborative Crowdsourced Cloud Mapping (C³M)" of the International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS), member of UN-GGIM Italy, Chair of the "Capacity Building" working group of the United Nations "UN OpenGIS", Deputy chair and member of the International Task Team (single woman) with the task of supporting the United Nations for the geospatial aspects (UN-GGIM). She was co-organizer of the annual "Europa NASA World Wind Challenge" event, which involved students and professionals in developing applications based on the virtual globe of NASA. Finally, she is a member of ACEO, the Advisory Committee for Earth Observation (ACEO), which is the main interpreter of the views and needs of the European scientific community on access to space experimentation and data exploitation in Earth science programs.

Position/Role

Researcher at the Cagliari Astronomical Observatory of the Italian National Intitute for Astrophysics (INAF)

Professional career

After graduating in Astronomy at the University of Bologna in 2000, Marta Burgay continued her studies at the same university where she obtained her PhD in 2004. A few months later she became a researcher at the INAF - Cagliari Astronomical Observatory, where she works on compact objects (studying ultra-dense stars). In particular she is an expert in observations and studies of radio pulsars (one of the manifestations of the compact neutron stars, so called because they are observed through pulses of radiation appearing at short regular intervals). Since 2012 she is part of the scientific  team operating the new 64-m Sardinia Radio Telescope. She is also a member of the European and the International Pulsar Timing Array experiments for the detection of gravitational waves from supermassive black holes, and of the GRAWITA (GRAvitational Wave Inaf TeAm) collaboration to search for the electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave events.

Scientific results

The scientific activity of Marta Burgay is focused mainly on neutron star studies and in particular on observations and investigations of pulsars. Her name is linked to the important discovery of the binary system J0737-3039A / B, the first and, to date, the only system formed by two pulsars. Thanks to its many peculiarities, thisdouble pulsar represents a unique laboratory in several fields (nuclear physics, plasma physics, relativistic gravity...): in the field of general relativity, for example, the study of the times of arrival of the pulses of the two stars allowed her team to test the validity of the theory of general relativity with a precision of 99.95%. Continued observations of this system, still underway, will allow to further improve this limit and to test alternative theories of gravity.
Since 2008 Marta Burgay has been part of the High Time Resolution Universe Survey project for pulsars and transients searches, and since 2013 of the SUPERB survey (Survey for Pulsars and Extragalactic Radio Bursts). Thanks to these projects almost 200 new pulsars have been discovered, including more than 30 extremely fast rotating millisecond pulsars, a magnetar (a different type of neutron star with a huge magnetic field) emitting radio waves, a pulsar with a "diamond" planet, and a new class of transient sources, the Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), of yet unknown origin.

Editorial work and publications

Marta Burgay is (co-)author of 140 refereed articles published in international journals (including 4 in Nature and 5 in Science) that have received a total of more than 9000 citations. She is (co-)author of 22 telematic scientific communications (Astronomer's Telegram, GCN Circulars) and (co-)author of 58 conference proceedings. She is editor in chief of a volume of conference proceedings.

[2013] Thornton D, Stappers B, Bailes M, Barsdell B, Bates S, Bhat N D R, Burgay M, Burke-Spolaor S, Champion D J, Coster P, D'Amico N, Jameson A, Johnston S, Keith M, Kramer M, Levin L, Milia S, Ng C, Possenti A, van Straten W. A Population of Fast Radio Bursts at Cosmological Distances, Science, 341:53. 

[2013] Burgay M, Keith MJ, Lorimer DR, Hassall TE, Lyne AG, Camilo F, D'Amico N, Hobbs GB, Kramer M, Manchester RN, McLaughlin MA, Possenti A, Stairs I H, Stappers BW. The Perseus Arm Pulsar Survey, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 429:579. 

[2011] Bailes M, Bates SD, Bhalerao V, Bhat NDR, Burgay M, Burke-Spolaor S, D'Amico N, Johnston S, Keith MJ, Kramer M, Kulkarni SR, Levin L, Lyne AG, Milia S, Possenti A, Spitler L, Stappers B, van Straten, W. Transformation of a Star into a Planet in a Millisecond Pulsar Binary, Science, 333:1717. 

[2006] Kramer M, Stairs IH, Manchester RN, McLaughlin MA, Lyne AG, Ferdman RD, Burgay M, Lorimer DR, Possenti A, D'Amico N, Sarkissian J M, Hobbs G B, Reynolds J E, Freire PCC, Camilo F. Tests of General Relativity from Timing the Double Pulsar, Science, 314:97. 

[2006] McLaughlin MA, Lyne AG, Lorimer DR, Kramer M, Faulkner AJ, Manchester RN, Cordes JM, Camilo F, Possenti A, Stairs IH, Hobbs G, D'Amico N, Burgay M, O'Brien JT. Transient radio bursts from rotating neutron stars, Nature, 439:817. 

[2004] Lyne AG, Burgay M, Kramer M, Possenti A, Manchester RN, Camilo F, McLaughlin MA, Lorimer DR, D'Amico N, Joshi BC, Reynolds J, Freire PCC, A Double-Pulsar System - A rare Laboratory for Relativistic Gravity and Plasma Physics, Science, 303:1153L. 

[2003] Burgay M, D'Amico N, Possenti A, Manchester RN, Lyne AG, Joshi BC, McLaughlin MA, Kramer M, Sarkissian JM, Camilo F, Kalogera V, Kim C, Lorimer DR. An increased estimate of the merger rate of double neutron stars from observations of a highly relativistic system, Nature, 426:531.

Awards and prizes

Marta Burgay has received several awards, from the beginning of her career, in addition to covering important scientific and institutional roles. Her PhD thesis "The Parkes High-Latitude Pulsar Survey and the Discovery of the First Double Pulsar" received the 2005 Tacchini Prize of the Italian Astronomical Society (SAIt). In 2005 she also received the Descartes Prize for excellence in scientific collaborative research, as a member of the  group PulSE (Pulsar Science in Europe). In 2006 she was awarded with two important prizes, the Italian Society of General Relativity and Gravity Physics (SIGrav) Award for young researchers, and the International Union  for Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Award for young physicists. In 2010 she won the Marsden Prize of the European Astrosky Network and the Vainu Bappu Award of the Astronomical Society of India. In 2011, the XXIII edition of the Marisa Bellisario Award dedicated to Women, Innovation and Human Capital assigned her a prize in the special awards section for young talents in research fields. In 2014 she was named "Chevalier de l'autonomie" of the Valle d'Aosta region and in 2015 she was designated "Sardinian woman of the year" by the Lyones Club of Cagliari. In 2017 the International Astronomical Union attributed to the asteroid n. 198634 the name Burgaymarta.

Position/Role

Associate professor at theGeorgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, United States.

Professional career

After graduating in Physics at the University of Milan, she continued her studies at the Princeton University, earning first a master's degree in 1998 and then a PhD in Physics in 2001. In the same year she became a post doc member at Princeton University, while, from 2002 to 2004 she held the same position at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

In 2005 she was a research scientist at MIT, a role she held until 2007, when she became assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. At the same university she worked as associate professor from 2012 until 2015. In 2014 she has been visiting scholar of Cardiff University for about six months. Since 2015 she is associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Scientific results

Her scientific research concerns gravitational waves, specifically it deals with identifying, characterizing and interpreting those of short duration produced by huge astrophysical events such as the collapse of the supernova core or the collisions of black holes. In February 2016 a press conference was held to present the discovery (which took place in September 2015) which changed the way astrophysics is understood: Laura Cadonati and her international research team showed the existence of gravitational waves theorized by Albert Einsten in the Theory of General Relativity. The discovery was carried out by the LIGO gravitational observatory in the United States, in collaboration with an international team of a thousand scientists, including those responsible for the Italian experiment Virgo, in Cascina. Thanks to this result there will be new applications in the field of theoretical physics and applied physics: indeed the discovery is not limited to providing a better understanding of the theory of relativity, but it offers new possibilities for scientific research in the field of the birth of the universe, and of the understanding of the forces that surround us. Laura Cadonati’s previous research activity included the detection of solar neutrinos with the Borexino experiment and participation in the DarkSide project for the research of Dark Matter, both experiments took place in the Gran Sasso National Laboratories.

Editorial work and publications

Laura Cadonati is the author of numerous presentations of international conferences and workshops, as well as seminars and parts of university books such as:

“Listening to Space with LIGO.” L. Cadonati. State of the Universe 2007 - New Images, Discoveries, and Events, 2006 Springer Praxis Books, Popular Astronomy Series. Ratcliffe Editor.

Moreover, she is author of numerous scientific publications, including:

(2016) LIGO-Virgo Collaboration. GW151226: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a 22 Solar-mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence. Physical Review Letters ,116, 241103.

(2016) LIGO-Virgo Collaboration. Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger. Physical Review Letters, 116, 061102.

(2016) LIGO-Virgo Collaboration. Characterization of transient noise in Advanced LIGO relevant to gravitational wave signal GW150914. Classical & Quantum Gravity, 33, 134001.

(2016) LIGO-Virgo Collaboration. Observing gravitational-wave transient GW150914 with minimal assumptions. Physical Review D, 93, 122004.

(2016) LIGO-Virgo Collaboration. Prospects for Observing and Localizing Gravitational-Wave Transients with Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. Living Reviews in Relativity, 19, 1.

(2014) Clark J, Bauswein A, Cadonati L, Janka HT, Pankow C, Stergioulas N. Prospects For High Frequency Burst Searches Following Binary Neutron Star Coalescence With Advanced Gravitational Wave Detectors. Physical Review D, 90, 062004.

(2014) LIGO-Virgo Collaboration. Methods and results of a search for gravitational waves associated with gamma-ray bursts using the GEO600, LIGO, and Virgo detectors. Physical Review D, 89,122004.

(2014) LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration, NINJA Collaboration. The NINJA-2 project: Detecting and characterizing gravitational waveforms modelled using numerical binary black hole simulations. Classical & Quantum Gravity, 31, 115004.

(2014) Borexino Collaboration. Neutrinos from the primary proton–proton fusion process in the Sun. Nature, 512, 383–386.

(2008) Borexino Collaboration. Direct Measurement of the Be 7 Solar Neutrino Flux with 192 Days of Borexino Data. Physical Review Letters, 101, 091302.

Awards and prizes

She has been working for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration since 2002. In 2010 she received the Career Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), in the same year she was elected to the executive committee of the Topical Group on Gravitation of the American Physical Society. In 2014 she was chosen in the Chair-line of the APS Topical Group on Gravitation (currently called “Division of Gravity”). The following year she joined the Fellow of the American Physical Society. In 2016 she became a member of the Advisory Board of the Classical and Quantum Gravity Journal.

Position/Role

She has the rank of Research Director  and works at the Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica (INAF)  in Milano. She is also Professor of “Introduction to Astronomy” at the University of Pavia.

Professional career

PATRIZIA CARAVEO got her degree in physics in 1977 at the Milano University. Since 2002 she has the rank of Research Director  and works atthe Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica (INAF)  in Milano. She is also Professor of “Introduction to Astronomy” at the University of Pavia

She took part in several international space missions dedicated to high energy astrophysics, starting from the European mission COS-B. Currently, she is involved in the exploitation of ESA’s Integral, of NASA’s Swift, of the Italian Agile and of the NASA Fermi missions, all fully operational in orbit. She also represents INAF within the CTA (Cherenkov Telescope Array) Collaboration Board.

Scientific results

She is a recognized leader in the study of neutron stars behavior at different wevelengths. Her work lead to the discovery (and to the understanding) of Geminga, the first radio quiet neutron star. Indeed, her career in astronomy was based in an interdisciplinary approach, using data from space and ground instruments.

Editorial work and publications

Patrizia Caraveo is the author of numerous national and international scientific publications, with a total of almost 50,000 citations. The full list is available online at: https://fisica.unipv.it/personale/PersFiles/Publ_357.pdf.

He has also written five popular science books:

Sidereus Nuncius 2.0. I messaggeri celesti della nuova astronomia (Mondadori Università, 2021)

(con Giovanni Bignami) I marziani siam noi. All ricerca di un'altra terra (Zanichelli 2019)

Conquistati dalla Luna. Storia di un'attrazione senza tempo (Raffaello Cortina Editore)

L'universo violento (Lezioni di fisica, Corriere della sera, 2019)

Uomini e Donne: stessi diritti? (Castelvecchi editore, 2017)

Awards and prizes

Patrizia Caraveo is a member of the International Astronomical Union, and shared with colleagues from the Swift, Fermi and AGILE teams, the American Astronomical Society's Bruno Rossi Award in 2007, 2011 and 2012 respectively. 

Owing to the Geminga success story, she won the Premio Nazionale Presidente della Repubblica in 2009 "for contributions to the understanding of high-energy emission from neutron stars". 

In 2014 she received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Women in Aerospace European Society and was included by Thomson Reuters in the list of Highly Cited Researchers for Space Science

In 2017 she was awarded the title of Commendatore dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana

In 2021, she received the "Enrico Fermi" prize (ex aequo with Prof. Elena Aprile) "for his role as a world leader in the field of high-energy emission from neutron stars and for his contribution to the identification of Geminga." 

Position/Role

Researcher at the IBFM-CNR (Institute of Molecular Bio-images and Physiology - National Research Council) in Milan.

Professional career

After graduating in Physics at the University of Milan in 1993, she received a scientific education in the field of physics applied to medicine, (more recently to cultural heritage and the environment), in particular in applications of imaging diagnostics combined with advanced computational techniques. Since 1997 she is Researcher at the Institute of Molecular Bioimaging and Physiology of the National Research Council (IBFM-CNR), where, since 2011, she is also a member of the Council of the Institute. From 2010 to 2016 she was professor on contract at the University of Milano-Bicocca. She gained experience in research responsibility through the creation and management of her own research group at the IBFM-CNR, which was consolidated in 2011 in a research laboratory (Integration & Innovation Laboratory in Molecular Imaging, INLAB www.inlab.ibfm.cnr.it), which currently hosts 10 researchers with expertise in the field of bioimaging, computer science, biology and biotechnology.

Scientific results

She obtained important scientific results in: 1) physical characterization of diagnostic imaging systems, in particular positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission tomography (SPECT), computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MRI), fluorescence imaging/bioluminescence and near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS),                                  2) development of methods of acquisition and processing of diagnostic images for medical and cultural applications, 3) development of methods and models for the correction of physical effects, noise sources in diagnostic imaging studies (eg attenuation, dispersion, partial volume effect), 4) development of methods of quantification and extraction of characteristics from diagnostic images (for example analysis of statistical parametric mapping, radiomics, analysis of main components, machine learning), 5) creation of databases of synthetic medical images for the validation of processing methods and quantification of medical images. Since 2010 she has coordinated 13 scientific research projects financed on competitive tenders or through contracts, for a total non-repayable net grant of 2M €, and 12 research projects in agreement with IRCCS and Hospitals. She showed her research achievements in more than 50 seminars and lectures at national and international conferences, universities and research institutes. She is co-inventor of four softwares for the extraction and quantification of biomarker images and biomedical data in use at national and foreign health facilities. From 2012 to 2015 she was Mentor of two spin offs in the biomedical technology sector.

Editorial work and publications

She is credited with 112 scientific publications in ISI scientific journals, including:

Science, Nucleic Acids Research, Theranostics, European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Medicine, Cerebral Cortex; she is in pole position (with the role of first, corresponding or last author) in more than 70% of her publications.

[2005] Berti A, Bottini G, Gandola M, Pia L, Smania N, Stracciari A, Castiglioni I, Vallar G. Shared cortical anatomy for motor awareness and motor control. Science, 309(5733):488-91.

[2014]Picchio M, Kirienko M, Mapelli P, Dell'Oca I, Villa E, Gallivanone F, Gianolli L, Messa C, Castiglioni I. Predictive value of pre-therapy (18)F-FDG PET/CT for the outcome of (18)F-FDG PET-guided radiotherapy in patients with head and neck cancer.Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging, 41(1):21-31.

[2015] Bertoli G, Cava C, Castiglioni I. MicroRNAs: New Biomarkers for Diagnosis, Prognosis, Therapy Prediction and Therapeutic Tools for Breast Cancer. Theranostics, 5(10):1122-43.

[2015] Salvatore C, Cerasa A, Battista P, Gilardi MC, Quattrone A, Castiglioni I; Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Magnetic resonance imaging biomarkers for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: a machine learning approach. Front Neurosci, 9:307. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2015.00307. eCollection 2015.

[2016] Colaprico A, Silva TC, Olsen C, Garofano L, Cava C, Garolini D, Sabedot TS, Malta TM, Pagnotta SM, Castiglioni I, Ceccarelli M, Bontempi G, Noushmehr H. TCGAbiolinks: an R/Bioconductor package for integrative analysis of TCGA data. Nucleic Acids Res, 44(8):e71. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkv1507.

[2017] Antunovic L, Gallivanone F, Sollini M, Sagona A, Invento A, Manfrinato G, Kirienko M, Tinterri C, Chiti A, Castiglioni I. [18F]FDG PET/CT features for the molecular characterization of primary breast tumors. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging, 44(12):1945-1954.

[2017] Berti A, Della-Torre E, Gallivanone F, Canevari C, Milani R, Lanzillotta M, Campochiaro C, Ramirez GA, Bozzalla Cassione E, Bozzolo E, Pedica F, Castiglioni I, Arcidiacono PG, Balzano G, Falconi M, Gianolli L, Dagna L. Quantitative measurement of 18F-FDG PET/CT uptake reflects the expansion of circulating plasmablasts in IgG4-related disease. Rheumatology,56(12):2084-2092. 

[2018] Gargano M, Galli A, Bonizzoni L, Alberti R, Aresi N, Caccia M, Castiglioni I, Interlenghi M, Salvatore C, Ludwig N, Martini M. The Giotto's workshop in the XXI century: looking inside the “God the Father with Angels” gable. Journal of cultural heritage: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2018.09.016

[2019] Cantini L, Bertoli G, Cava C, Dubois T, Zinovyev A, Caselle M, Castiglioni I, Barillot E, Martignetti L. Identification of microRNA clusters cooperatively acting on Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition in Triple Negative Breast Cancer. NAR, in press (Published on-line).

[2019] Musazzi L, Sala N, Tornese P, Gallivanone F, Belloli S, Conte A, Di Grigoli G, Fenghua C, Treccani G, Bazzini C, Castiglioni I, Nyengaard JR, Wegener G, Moresco RM, Popoli P. Acute inescapable stress rapidly increases synaptic energy metabolism in prefrontal cortex and alters working memory performance. Cerebral Cortex, in press.

Awards and prizes

From 2007 to 2009 she was Foreign Scientific Visitors Tutor for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). She is a scientific evaluator of research projects for International Institutions (Engineering in the Medical and Biology Society, Fundacao para a Cienca and in Technology FCT – Portugal, French Institute National du Cancer, Poland National Science Center, Horizon2020). She is a scientific reviewer in international scientific journals in the field of bioimaging and molecular diagnostics and carries out publishing activities, as Associate Editor and Guest Editor. In particular she was Lead Guest Editor of the Special Issue "Frontiers in Biomarkers for Theranostics" in Frontiers in Bioscience - Landmark, of the Special Issue "Frontiers from Radiomics in Molecular Imaging" in Contrast Media and Molecular Imaging, and of the Special Issue "Imaging biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of neurodegenerative diseases” in Frontiers in Neuroscience.

In September 2021 she is  named among the 50 most inspiring Italian women in the world of technology with the award InspiringFifty for Italy.

Position/Role

Research Director of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) at the Turin Division.

Professional career

After graduating in Theoretical Physics in Turin in 1984, she obtained a PhD from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1989 and worked at CALTECH in California, before returning in 1993 as a researcher and lecturer at the Politecnico di Torino. She is a research manager at the Turin Section of the INFN, where she coordinated the Theoretical Physics Group from 2015 to 2022. Her research explores quantum field theories of fundamental interactions including gravity, with applications to black holes and cosmology. Since 2017 she leads a national research project on String and Field Theory. She has been a team member of the ERC "Superfields" and a working group leader in the COST project "The String Theory Universe." She is active in promoting gender in Theoretical Physics and among the founders of the GenHET group at CERN. She is involved in science outreach through various means, including Theatre,  she is one of the creators of La forza nascosta: scienziate nella fisica e nella storiata: scienziate nella fisica e nella storia and president of the Teatro&Scienza association in Turin and president of the Science&Theatre association in Turin.

Scientific results

Her research activity has been in high-energy theoretical physics. She has devoted herself to the construction of new quantum theories that, extending Einstein's General Relativity and the Standard Model for elementary particles, can describe the unification of gravity with the other fundamental interactions of elementary particles. Her focus has been on mathematical structures and symmetries governing the interaction of space, time and matter. She is an expert in models in which space-time possesses more than 4 dimensions, in field theories with conformal invariance and with supersymmetry: supergravity, string theories, holographic theories. She has also contributed their applications to the study of black holes and cosmology. 

Her most relevant results concern the construction of general models of supergravity in 4 and 5 space-time dimensions suitable for describing the interaction between (super)gravity and matter, the analysis of their electromagnetic duality symmetries, the work on consistency proofs of the holographic principle and the description of black holes in supergravity by means of flow equations.

Editorial work and publications

Her publications include more than 60 research papers published in international journals and one specialized volume in the field of high energy theoretical physics and mathematical physics. Below is a selection.

[2019]  Castellani L., Ceresole A., D'Auria R., Fré P. Tullio Regge: An Eclectic Genius: From Quantum Gravity to Computer Play. World Scientific, ISBN 978-981-12-1343-4, doi 10.1142/11643.

[2014] Ceresole A., Dall'Agata G., Ferrara S., Trigiante M., Van Proeyen A. A search for an N=2 inflaton potential, Fortsch. Phys. 62 (2014) 584 [arXiv:1404.1745 [hep-th]]. 

[2007]  Ceresole A., Dall'Agata G. Flow equations for non-BPS extremal black holes, JHEP 0703 (2007) 110 [arXiv:hep-th/0702088].

[2006] Ceresole A., Dall'Agata G., Giryavets A., Kallosh R., Linde A. Domain walls, near-BPS bubbles, and probabilities in the landscape, Phys. Rev. D 74 (2006) 086010 [arXiv:hep-th/0605266].

[2000] Ceresole A., Dall'Agata G. General Matter Coupled N=2, D = 5 Gauged Supergravity, Nucl. Phys. 585 (2000)143{170, [hep-th/0004111].

[2001] Ceresole A., Dall'Agata G., Kallosh R., Van Proeyen A. Hypermultiplets, Domain Walls and Supersymmetric Attractors, Phys. Rev. D 64 (2001) 104006 (23 pages) [arXiv:hep-th/0104056].

[2000] Ceresole A., Dall'Agata G., D'Auria R., Ferrara S. Spectrum of type IIB supergravity on AdS(5)xT11: Predictions on N = 1 SCFT's" , Phys. Rev. D61 066001-19, [hep-th/9905226].

[1997] Andrianopoli L., Bertolini M., Ceresole A., D'Auria R., Ferrara S., Fre P., Magri T. N=2 Supergravity and N=2 Super Yang-Mills Theory on General Scalar Manifolds: Symplectic Covariance, Gaugings and the Momentum Map, J. Geom. Phys. 23, 111 (1997), [hep-th/9605032].

[1995] Cadavid A. C., Ceresole A., D'Auria R., Ferrara S. 11-Dimensional Supergravity Compactified on Calabi Yau Threefolds, Phys. Lett B357 (1995) 76-80, [hep-th/9506144].

[1995] Ceresole A., D'Auria R., Ferrara S., Van Proeyen A. Duality Transformations in N=2 Supersymmetric Yang Mills Theories coupled to Supergravity, Nucl. Phys. B444 (1995) 92-124, [hep-th/9502072].

[1992] Ceresole A., D'Auria R., S. Ferrara S., Lerche W., Louis J. Picard-Fuchs equations and special geometry, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A, 8 (1993) 79-114 [hep-th/9204035 [hep-th]].

[1985] Ceresole A., Frè P., Nicolai H. Multiplet Structure and Spectra of N=2 Supersymmetric Compactifications, Class.Quant.Grav. 2 (1985) 133.

Position/Role

Associate Professor of Physics at University of Pisa

Professional career

After obtaining the MD in Physics at the University of Pisa in1992 and the PhD at the Scuola Normale Superiore (SNS) in 1996, both cum laude, at the SNS she has been postdoc and then researcher (1998-2002, 2004-2007), working in 2002-2004 with Professor Anna Nobili. Since 2007 she is associate Professor at the University of Pisa (habilitated as full professor). She teaches two elementary-physics courses for BSD and MD in Pharmacy, one specialized course for MD and PhD in Physics, and Physics of everyday life to teach physics teaching. She contributes to the Interdisciplinary Center Sciences for Peace, Interdepartmental Center for Education Research, and the Responsible Research&Innovation group of the University of Pisa.
She has coordinated disciplinary or physics education research projects funded by CINECA, SNS, ASI, INFN, MIT-UNIPI, KITP, Erasmus+, and CISIA.
Part of her research activity has been carried out at international scientific Institutions, such as: IRC Cambridge, TU-Eindhoven, Institut Poincaré (Paris), CNRS (Grenoble), University of Auckland, Strathclyde University (UK), ICTP, ECT e CRS-BEC (Trento), and Los Alamos National Labs, Aspen Center for Physics, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stanford, Harvard e MIT (US). Long and strong ties are with JILA (Boulder, US), where she has investigated quantum fluids for 1-2 months almost every year since 1995 in the groups of Murray Holland or Debbie Jin, around the pioneering experiments of the Nobel laureates Carl Wiemann and Eric Cornell.

Scientific results

She has developed the bipolaronic theory for high-temperature superconductivity, published in a monography, while contributing to the study of strongly correlated charged bosons. Since the observation in 1995 at JILA and MIT of Bose-Einstein condensation in ultracold (i.e. at billionths Kelvin above absolute zero) atoms, she has focused on the study of these systems as a platform to engineer quantum technologies under the accurate control of temperature, interactions, and spatial dimensions.  To this aim, she has also developed simulational and theoretical methods, among the latter the time-dependent density functional theory for superfluids. The most relevant and recognized work has been conceiving with Murray Holland the theory of resonant fermionic superfluidity, later observed by Debbie Jin at JILA.  
During the happy research parenthesis in the group of Anna Nobili, she has developed the simulational environment for the Galileo Galilei on the Ground test of the equivalence principle, with macroscopic bodies. Such cross-disciplinary approach keeps characterizing the research activity, nowadays along two directions: quantum technologies for fundamental physics with atomic interferometry (she is coauthor of a number of proposals, among which Atomic Experiments for Dark Matter and Gravity Exploration in Space submitted to the ESA call Voyage2050); developing a “quantum black box” to solve quantum problems which, by means of on-purpose conceived videogames, modelling human behavior, and using machine learning, integrates the power of human-mind creativity and intuition with the power of machines (classical or quantum). In fact, she coordinates with Sabrina Maniscalco (Turku University) the cross-disciplinary proposal Integrating Human&Machine Minds for Quantum Technologies (IQHuMinds) crossing quantum physics, neuroscience, computer science, gamification, with European and US partners from Universities (Pisa and Turku, ICFO, JILA) and sectoral companies (VIS, MiTale, QuSide, IBM-Zurich, Unity).

She parallels the disciplinary research with physics education research and outreach. She has created a number of formats and events for radio (e.g. Hallo, Science! with Sara Maggi), videos, and art&science shows. She has collaborated on science&society with Rai-Radio3, Repubblica, Focus Junior, Scienzainrete, Ingenere, Corriere della Sera, DireDonne.

Editorial work and publications

[2019] Lucchesi L and Chiofalo ML, Many-body Entanglement of Fermi Gases with Short-Range Interactions. Phys. Rev. Lett. 123: 60406.
 
[2018] Colella E, Citro R, Barsanti M, Rossini D, and Chiofalo ML, Quantum Phases of Spinful Fermi Gases in Optical Cavities. Phys. Rev. B 97: 134502.
 
[2014] Iadonisi G, Cantele G, Chiofalo ML, Introduction to Solid State Physics and Crystalline Nanostructures, SPRINGER VERLAG- Italia (2014) 685 pp.
 
[2008] Ivanov V, Alberti A, Schioppo M, Ferrari G, Artoni M, Chiofalo ML and Tino G, Coherent delocalization of atomic wavepackets in driven lattice potentials. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100: 43601.
 
[2007] Citro R, Orignac E, de Palo S, and Chiofalo ML, Evidence of Luttinger liquid behavior in one-dimensional dipolar quantum gases, Phys. Rev. A Rapid Comm. 75: 51602.
 
[2006] Chiofalo ML, Giorgini S, and Holland MJ, Released Momentum Distribution of a Fermi Gas in the BCS-BEC Crossover. Phys. Rev. Lett. 97: 070404.
 
[2003] Nobili AM, Bramanti D, Comandi GL, Toncelli R, Polacco E, and Chiofalo ML, GALILEO GALILEI-GG: design, requirements, error budget and significance of the ground prototype. Phys. Lett. A.318: 172.
 
[2001] Holland MJ, Kokkelmans SJJMF, Chiofalo ML and Walser R, Resonance superfluidity in a quantum degenerate Fermi gas. Phys. Rev. Lett. 87: 120406.
 
[2001] Chiofalo ML and Tosi MP, Time-dependent density-functional theory for superfluids. Europhys. Lett. 53:162.
 
[2001] Burger S, Cataliotti FS, Fort C, Minardi F, Inguscio M, Chiofalo ML and Tosi MP, Superfluid and Dissipative Dynamics of a Bose-Einstein Condensate in a Periodic Optical Potential. Phys. Rev. Lett. 86: 4447.
 
[1998] Iadonisi G, Schrieffer RJ and Chiofalo ML Eds., Models and Phenomenology for conventional and high-Tcsuperconductivity, Proceedings del CXXXVI Corso della Scuola Internazionale di Fisica "Enrico Fermi", IOS.
 
[1997] Holland M, Jin J, Chiofalo ML and Cooper J, Emergence of interaction effects in Bose--Einstein condensation. Phys. Rev. Lett. 78: 3801.

Awards and prizes

She has been awarded the Prize for MD students by the Italian Physical Society (1997). The work on Time-dependent density functional theory for superfluids has been selected among the INFM Highlights (1998). She has been awarded the Prizes Culture of Solidarity (Pistoia, 2014) and Successful Women (Sportello Donna, Pavia, and Fondazione Gaia, Milan, 2016, event Beijin+20). According to Ladynomics, she is among the 150 most influential feminists 2019.
She has organized a number of events as component of scientific board, among which the CXXXVI International School of Physics Enrico Fermi (Varenna 1997, on high-temperature superconductivity) with the directors R. J. Schrieffer (Nobel laureate) and G. Iadonisi.  She has created and directed the Festival MusicalMente for the Arts Campus in Sangemini, and chairs the Conferences series Quantum gases, Fundamental interactions, and Cosmology (2017-). She is part of the scientific boards of the CISP Magazine, the series Culture and training (D. Pardini and M. Agujari eds.), and the Cosmos Award for popular science, chaired by Gianfranco Bertone. She has served as peer reviewer for VQR 2011-2014, ERC Starting Grant 2019, and academic Institutions (Stanford, Harvard, LKB Paris). She is in the board of Photonics.  She is reviewer for Physical Review (Letters, A, B, E, X), Nature, NJP, EPJ, Europhysics Letters.

Position/Role

President and co-founder of Talent4Rise, Milan

Professional career

In 1986 she graduated in Electronic and System Physics from the University of Milan with a thesis on the effects of acid rain carried out at CRTN (ENEL's Centre for Thermal and Nuclear Research). In 1987 she joined the Italtel Telesis Consortium in the role of Proposal Manager for the development of environmental monitoring networks and the first mathematical models for air quality forecasting (DISIA Ministry of the Environment project). From 1988 to 1997 she was Head of the Environmental Subsystem in the 5T Consortium. In 1997 she joined Italtel S.p.A. as Proposal Manager and took part in the ministerial tender for the assignment of the third mobile operator (Wind). Later, from 2000 to 2013, she was International Bid and Contract Manager and contributed to the implementation of important intranets (EINET-Italian Army), the IP backbone of the Italian Research and University Network (GARR Consortium) and VoIP for international operators (SNCF, Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français) and Italian operators (CGIL Piemonte, Acciaieria Cogne di Aosta and for the Barilla factory). In 2013 he founded the association Talent4Rise.

Scientific results

Paola Corradi has been working for almost thirty years on the development of ICT networks for businesses and public administration, on cloud solutions, on the start-up of new services and new markets. Her current interests include innovative ICT applications for smart cities and international relations as a lever for development in a globalised world. Advocating the importance of shared value between public administration, profit and non-profit companies, to activate cooperative circuits and positive feedback, and the development of new digital technologies as a tool for economic growth, Paola Corradi participates in Expo 2015 with a series of workshops at Cascina Triulza and cultural exhibitions on Expo themes (Epic Exhibition of Expo in the City - Shepherds of the Alps: 100 stories, 100 faces to feed the Planet). She brings to Expo 2015 the original Rise2Up project, whose primary objective is to give visibility to the good practices of Italian companies, in Italy and abroad, that stand out for Quality and Safety, Food Education, Originality and Biodiversity, Eco-sustainability, Health, WEB2.0, Internationality, Tradition and Conservation and Innovation. In April 2016, she organised a business mission to Dubai on the themes of innovation. Today she promotes, with the support of Talent4Rise Management, scientific workshops within the Human Factory Day programme of Fondazione Triulza.

Awards and prizes

The Rise2Up project was awarded by the Milan Chamber of Commerce as one of the best projects presented at the Thematic Tables of Expo2015. Paola Corradi is a member of the General Council of Fondazione Triulza as co-founder.

Position/Role

Research Director of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics, Director of the “Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics” Arcetri, Florence (Italy

Professional career

Physics Degree at the University of Florence, PhD at the School of Advanced Studies (SISSA) for the  Elementary Particles’ Sector,  Visiting Scientist at the University of Geneva and Cern, Professor on Contract at the Faculty of Science of Education and the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the  Florence University,  Research Director of the Florence Unit of the INFN,  Member of the Plenary European Committee for Future Accelerators (ECFA), Director of the Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics, Arcetri Firenze (Italy).

Scientific results

Her research is in the field of particle physics. She has been interested on the phenomenological manifestations of New Physics phenomena in the high energy particle physics experiments by proposing beyond Standard Model scenarios that may solve the open problems of the Standard Model and study their experimental manifestations at present and future particle accelerators.  Having long worked on the construction of effective models she was able to give substantial contributions to the formulation of composite Higgs scenarios but also to the analysis of their phenomenological implications.  After the discovery of the Higgs particle in 2012, several questions are still to be answered: is it a fundamental scalar? Is it the only one responsible for the electroweak and the mass generation?  Is it unique, or a part of an extended Higgs sector? Is it the portal of an “hidden” dynamics? If the answer to this last question is affirmative, then one can explore the possibility of a composite Higgs particle, possibly a pseudo-Nambu Goldstone boson associated to the breaking of a global symmetry; a “new pion” which could offer a solution to the hierarchy problem. Recently the study of the composite dynamics in the early universe has captured her attention, in particular the occurrence of a strong first-order electro-weak phase transition, which can trigger baryogenesis in composite Higgs models. Another interesting aspect of this scenario is the generation of gravitational wave signatures that could be observed at future space-based interferometers.

Editorial work and publications

[2022] De Curtis S., Delle Rose L., Guiggiani A., Muyor A.G., Panico G., Bubble wall dynamics at the electroweak phase transition, Journal of High Energy Physics  03, 163.

[2019] De Curtis S., Delle Rose L., Panico G., Composite dynamics in the early Universe, Journal of High Energy Physics 12, 149.

[2013] Barducci D, Belyaev A, De Curtis S, Moretti S, Pruna G M. Exploring Drell-Yan signals from the 4D Composite Higgs Model at the LHC,  Journal of High Energy Physics 04, 152.

[2012] De Curtis S, Redi M, Tesi A. The 4D composite Higgs, Journal of High Energy Physics 04, 042

[2009] Cacciapaglia G, Deandrea A, De Curtis S.  Nearby resonances beyond the Breit-Wigner approximation, Physics Letters B 682: 43-49.

[2004] Casalbuoni R, De Curtis S, Dominici D. Moose models with vanishing S parameter, Physical  Review D, PARTICLES, FIELDS, GRAVITATION, AND COSMOLOGY, 70: 055010.

[1999] Casalbuoni R, De Curtis S, Dominici D, Gatto R. SM Kaluza-Klein excitations and electroweak precision tests, Physics  Letters B462: 48-54.

[1996] Casalbuoni R, Dominici D, Deandrea A, Gatto R, De Curtis S, Grazzini M. Low energy strong electroweak sector with decoupling, Physical Review D 53: 5201-5221.

[1993] Altarelli G, Casalbuoni R, De Curtis S, Dibartolomeo N, Gatto R, Feruglio F. Extended Gauge-Modrels  and Precision  Electroweak  Data, Physics Letters B 318: 139-147.

[1989] Barducci A, Casalbuoni R, De Curtis S, Gatto R, Pettini G. Chiral-Symmetry Breaking in QCD at Finite Temperature and  Density, Physics Letters B 231: 463-470.

[1989] Casalbuoni R, De Curtis S, Dominici D, Feruglio F, Gatto R. Non-Linear Realization of  Supersymmetry Algebra from  Supersymmetric  Constraint, Physics Letters B220: 569-575.

[1988] Barducci A, Casalbuoni R, De Curtis S, Dominici D, Gatto R. Dynamical Chiral-Symmetry  Breaking and Determination of the Quark Masses, Physical Review D 38: 238-278.

[1985] Casalbuoni R, De Curtis S, Dominici D, Gatto R. Effective Weak Interaction Theory with a Possible New Vector Resonance From a Strong Higgs Sector, Physics Letters, B 155: 95-99.

Position/Role

Senior researcher of the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) section of Rome

Professional career

After obtaining a degree in Physics at the University La Sapienza of Rome in 1992, he continued his education obtaining in 1997 a Ph.D. in Astronomy. In 1996, thanks to a grant from the CNR, he spent a year at their Institute of Space Astrophysics. Since 1998, she is a researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics of the CNR, now  called  Institute of Astrophysics and Space Planetology of INAF.

Scientific results

The research interests of Maria Cristina De Sanctis mainly include three fields of study: the minor bodies of the solar system and planetary surfaces, the thermal evolution of solar system bodies, the instrumentation for space missions. She analyzed data from telescope, space and laboratory observations to investigate the composition of comets and asteroids, of the surface of the Moon and  Mercury. She has experience in the study of  composition of  asteroids by ground and space observations, as well of cometary gases through high-resolution spectral observations.

She has studied the thermal evolution of icy bodies of the solar system, developing a complex numerical code that allows to simulate the processes of differentiation and evolution of such objects (comets, KBOs, Centauri, asteroids). She has  a laboratory for spectral measurements of metorites and planetary analogues. She has also developed instrumentation for space missions, image spectrometers and multi-spectral cameras, to study of the compositions of planetary surface and minor bodies of the solar system. She has followed the development of entire projects, as a Principal Investigator (PI), dealing with the scientific and technical coordination of the team's activities, and with the ESA or NASA teams. She is the PI of VIR spectrometer onboard of Dawn NASA mission of Ma_MISS on ExoMars ESA mission. She is also involved in several other instruments on Bepi-Colombo, Rosetta, Juice Missions.

Editorial work and publications

She is author of more than 180 international publications, including:

(2016) De Sanctis MC, Raponi A, Ammannito E, Ciarniello M, Toplis MJ, McSween HY, Castillo-Rogez JC, et al. Bright carbonate deposits as evidence of aqueous alteration on (1) Ceres. Nature, 536, 7614:54-57. 
(2016) Filacchione G, De Sanctis MC, Capaccioni F, Raponi A, Tosi F, et al. Exposed water ice on the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Nature, 529, 7586:368-372. 
(2016) Russell CT, Raymond CA, Ammannito E, Buczkowski DL, De Sanctis MC, Hiesinger H, Jaumann R, Konopliv AS, et al. Dawn arrives at Ceres: Exploration of a small, volatile-rich world. Science, 353 (6303):1008-1010. 
(2016) Combe JP, McCord TB, Tosi F, Ammannito E, Carrozzo FG, De Sanctis MC, Raponi A, Byrne S, et al. Detection of local H2O exposed at the surface of Ceres. Science, 353, 6303, aaf3010. 
(2016) Ammannito E, DeSanctis MC, Ciarniello M, Frigeri A, Carrozzo FG, et al. Distribution of phyllosilicates on the surface of Ceres. Science, 353 (6303). 
(2016) Buczkowski DL, Schmidt BE, Williams DA, Mest SC, Scully JEC, Ermakov AI, Preusker F, Schenk P, Otto KA, Hiesinger H, O'Brien D, Marchi S, Sizemore H, Hughson K, Chilton H, Bland M, Byrne S, Schorghofer N, Platz T, Jaumann R, Roatsch T, Sykes MV, Nathues A, De Sanctis MC, et al. The geomorphology of Ceres. Science, 353,6303, aaf4332. 
(2015) De Sanctis MC, Ammannito E, Raponi A, Marchi S, McCord TB, McSween HY, Capaccioni F, Capria MT, Carrozzo FG, Ciarniello M, et al. Ammoniated phyllosilicates with a likely outer Solar System origin on (1) Ceres. Nature, 528,7581:241-244. 
(2015) De Sanctis MC, Capaccioni F, Ciarniello M, Filacchione G, Formisano M, Mottola S, Raponi A, Tosi F, Bockelée-Morvan D, Erard S, et al. The diurnal cycle of water ice on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Nature,525,7570:500-503. 
(2013) Ammannito E, De Sanctis MC, Palomba E, Longobardo A, Mittlefehldt DW, McSween HY, et al. Olivine in an unexpected location on Vesta's surface. Nature, 504(7478).122-125. 
(2012) De Sanctis MC, Ammannito E, Capria MT, Tosi F, Capaccioni F, Zambon F, Carraro F, Fonte S, Frigeri A, Jaumann R, et al. Spectroscopic Characterization of Mineralogy and Its Diversity Across Vesta. Science, 336(6082), 697. 

She also wrote Heat and Gas Diffusion in Comet Nuclei (International Space Science Institute, 2006). 

She is on the editorial board of the journal Space Science Review.

Awards and prizes

Maria Cristina de Sanctis has received many honours and awards.

In 2004, ESA Scientific Award  “Outstanding contribution to  Rosetta Mission”.

In 2008, NASA Achievement  Award  “Dawn Science Payload”.

In 2009, NASA Achievement  Award  “DAWN post-lunch payload characterization and calibration activities”.

In 2012, NASA Achievement  Award “Exceptional and Succesful execution of the DAWN  at  Vesta”.

In 2013, NASA Achievement  Award "Dawn science data analysis at Vesta”.

In 2015, ESA Scientific Award  “Outstanding scientific contribution to  VEX Mission”.

In 2016, ESA Scientific Award “Outstanding scientific contribution to  Rosetta Mission”.       

In 2017, NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal.

Asteroid  17899 Mariacristina is called in her honor.

Position/Role

Full professor of General Physics at the University of Roma Tor Vergata and Director of the INFN group at Roma Tor Vergata. Her research field is the experimental Particle Physics.  She leads a group of researchers of the University of Roma Tor Vergata working on the ATLAS experiment at the CERN laboratory (Geneva, Switzerland). 

Professional career

She graduated at the University of Roma La Sapienza on the UA1 experiment at CERN. In 1984 she won a position as assistant professor at the University of Roma Tor Vergata and in 1999 she becme aassociate professor.  From 1981-1983 she was research associate at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA. In 1984 and 1985 she was visitor at the Physics Department of the Harvard University (USA) and at the Oak-Ridge American Laboratory (USA). From 1987-1988 she was fellow at CERN. In 1994 she won an “Alexander von Humboldt” fellowship for a research program in particle physics at the Albert-Ludwig-University in Freiburg, Germany.

Scientific results

 She participated in several high energy experiments at CERN to study proton-proton collisions at 63 GeV (experiment R807 at the ISR), proton-antiproton collisions at 540 and 630 GeV (UA1 experiment at the ppbar Collider, discovery of the W and Z bosons, Nobel Prize to Prof. C. Rubbia), pion-nucleon interactions at 26 GeV in the center of mass (WA92 at the SPS proto-synchrotron) and proton-proton collisions at 7, 8, 13 TeV (ATLAS experiment at LHC, discovery of the Higgs Boson, Nobel Prize to Prof. F. Englert and Prof. P. Higgs). She was contributing to the development of a high time resolution detector,RPC, employed for the barrel muon trigger in the ATLAS spectrometer. From 2013-2015 she led the Italian participation to the ATLAS experiment. She is currently involved in the upgrade project of the ATLAS spectrometer for the high luminosity LHC program.

Editorial work and publications

She is author of more than 800 publications among which :

(2017) Atlas Collaboration. Evidence for the 𝐻→𝑏𝑏⎯ decay with the ATLAS detector, JHEP 1712 024.

(2013) Atlas Collaboration. Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Physics Letters B, 726:1-3, 88-119. 

(2013) Atlas Collaboration. Evidence for the spin-0 nature of the Higgs boson using ATLAS data. Physics Letters B, 726:1-3, 120-144. 

(2012) Atlas Collaboration. Observation of a new particle in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Physics Letters B, 716: 1, 1-29. 

(2012) Atlas Collaboration. Combined search for the Standard Model Higgs boson using up to 4.9 fb(-1) of pp collision data at root s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Physics Letters B, 710: 1, 49-66. 

(2012) Atlas Collaboration. Search for the Standard Model Higgs Boson in the Diphoton Decay Channel with 4.9 fb(-1) of pp Collision Data at root s=7 TeV with ATLAS. Physical Review Letters, 108:11,111803.  

(2008) Aad G, Abat E, Abdallah J, et al. The ATLAS Experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Journal Of Instrumentation, 3, S08003. 

(1990) Albajar C, Albrow MG, Allkofer OC, et al. A Study of the General-Characteristics of Proton Antiproton Collisions at square-Root s=0.2 to 0.9 TeV. Nuclear Physics B, 335: 2, 261-287. 

(1987) Albajar C, Albrow MG, Allkofer OC, et al. Search for B0-Bbar0 Oscillations at the CERN Proton-Antiproton Collider. Physics Letters B, 186: 2, 247-254 

(1983) Arnison G, Astbury A, Aubert B, et al. Experimental-observation of isolated large transverse energy electrons with associated missing energy at square-root-s=540 GeV. Physics Letters B, 122:1, 103-116. 

(1983) Arnison G, Astbury A, Aubert B, et al. Experimental-Observation of Lepton Pairs of Invariant Mass Around 95 GeV/c^2 at the CERN SpS Collider. Physics Letters B, 126:5, 398-410.

Awards and prizes

In 1987 she got a prize from the Italian Society of Physics  (SIF), in 2013 the European Society of Physics (EPS) was assigned to the ATLAS Collaboration a prize for the discovery of the Higgs Boson. In 2016 she got the prize “Cajeta 2016” assigned from the City of Gaeta (my home town) to women that distinguished in Science.

Position/Role

Professor of Space Economy and Director of Space Economy Evolution Lab (SEE Lab) at Bocconi School of Management, Milan.

Professional career

After graduating in physics with a specialisation in astrophysics and space physics at the University La Sapienza in Rome in 1984, in 1986 she joined the National Space Plan of the National Research Council, which became the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in 1988. Her responsibilities ranged from Earth observation to automation and robotics, science and human spaceflight. In 2002, she was appointed Director of the ASI's Observation of the Universe, in charge of all the scientific programmes of ASI, including its contribution to ESA programmes, and of the exploration programmes, and the management of the Italian astronauts. From 2008 to 2011, Di Pippo served as Director of Human Spaceflight at the ESA, first woman appointed Director at ESA since its inception in 1975. In 2009, she co-founded the association Women in Aerospace – Europe, to expand the representation and leadership of women in the aerospace sector. Her leadership as President lasted until 2016, when she was appointed as Honorary President. In 2017 she became UN International Gender Champion. After having served as the Head of the European Space Policy Observatory at Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) in Brussels, from March 2014 to March 2022, she was the Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) in Vienna.

She is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Space, the board of directors of RINA SPA, and the chairperson of their ESG Committee, and a member of the Scientific Council of Criptaliae for the development of the Grottaglie spaceport.

Scientific results

Simonetta Di Pippo is considered one of the foremost experts in international aerospace cooperation. As Director of the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), from 2014 to 2022, she developed strategies, policies and supervised all activities carried out by the Office, ensuring their development in accordance with the mandate of the United Nations General Assembly and the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), respectively. 

Her expertise covers space exploration, observation of the universe, the peaceful use of outer space, the use of technology and science for sustainable development and the reduction of risks of natural disasters and catastrophes, the Space Economy, and women's leadership in the aerospace sector.

Editorial work and publications

Simonetta Di Pippo has authored or coauthored numerous scientific and popular publications, including three highly popular monographs:

(2022) Space economy. La nuova frontiera dello sviluppo. Milano: Bocconi University Press.

(2007) (con C. Smiraglia, I.E. Tabacco, M. Di Martino, C. Guaita) Dai ghiacciai della Terra ai ghiaccia dell'Universo. Genova: Erga Edizioni.

(2002) Astronauti. Milano: Ugo Mursia Editore.

Awards and prizes

During her career, Simonetta Di Pippo has received many national and international recognitions, among them in 2006 she was awarded the title of Cavaliere Ufficiale al Merito by the President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and in 2022 the title of Commendatore al Merito della Repubblica Italiana by President Sergio Mattarella.

In 2008, the International Astronomical Union awarded asteroid 21887 the name 'DiPippo' in recognition of its commitment to space exploration. 

In 2010 she won the Sebetia-Ter - Targa d'Argento international award from the President of the Republic for his contribution to the space sector. 

In 2012 she received the Women in Aerospace Leadership Award in recognition of her role as an inspirer of space exploration, a manager with great capabilities for complex space projects, and a leader for young women in aerospace. 

In 2013, she received the Laurea Honoris Causa in Scienze ambientali (Environmental Science).

In 2016, she received the International Cooperation Award presented by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) to those who contribute significantly to the promotion of international cooperation in space activities.

In 2017, she received the Laurea Honoris Causa in Relazioni Internazionali(International Relations).

In 2018, she received the Hubert Curie Award from Eurisy, first woman ever to receive this award.

In 2022, she received the following awards:

• the Hall of Fame of the International Astronautical Federation;
• the "Volti della Memoria" Award from the Presidency of the Milan City Council;
• the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold for services to the Republic of Austria, from the Presidency of the Austrian Republic;
• the Order of the Rising Sun from the Japanese government.

Position/Role

Head, Technology Application for Security and Heath Division (FSN-TECFIS) at ENEA 

Professional career

Degree in Chemistry at Roma University “La Sapienza” in 1978 discussing a thesis on electron spectroscopy in the gas phase. After a period of fellowships, permanent position at ENEA in 1982 initially addressed to the participation to laser assisted uranium isotope enrichment project. At the end of the project she spent some periods of specialization abroad (Catholic University of Nijmegen - NL, ETH Ecole Polytechnique Zurich - CH). Due to her professional expertise on laser diagnostics and photochemistry,  in 1998 she became the head of the Molecular Spectroscopy Laboratory of ENEA at Frascati (FIS-SPET), keeping the charge until  2010. In 2010 she was appointed as director of the large Technical Unit “Applications of radiations” (UTAPRAD) of ENEA at Frascati. Following the last structural changes in ENEA, since 2015 to now, she became head of  Technology Application for Security and Heath Division (FSN-TECFIS) of ENEA at Frascati.

Scientific results

From the beginning of her career Dr. R. Fantoni was involved in multidisciplinary research activities and projects implying knowledge relevant to both chemistry and physics (spectroscopy and material processing). Successively, within the field of radiation-matter interactions, she carried out researches on processes with a broader applicative range,  from biology and medicine to cultural heritage. Her well consolidated scientific and technological background was time to time utilized and reshaped for  specific tasks, such as: laser applications in physical chemistry, starting from researches relevant to the laser isotope enrichment project  basically dealing with multi-photon and high resolution IR spectroscopy; laser spectroscopies and diagnostics, including infrared diode laser spectroscopy, laser Raman spectroscopy, emission spectroscopy in visible7ultriaviolet range, multiphoton-ionization spectrometry, Laser Induced  Fluorescence (LIF), Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), Coherent AntiStokes Raman Scattering (CARS), Degenerate Four Wave Mixing (DFWM) e Laser Induced Grating Spectroscopy (LIGS); different multidisciplinary laser application relevant to microelectronics  (thin film deposition), to material science (nano-structures synthesis), to the environment (laser decomposition of liquid and gaseous pollutants) and in situ and remote characterization of cultural heritage surfaces; Organization and participation to monitoring campaigns on sea waters and cultural heritage surfaces.

Along her career Dr R. Fantoni personally established and kept contacts with scientist in European laboratory of excellence (in the Netherlands, Suisse, Romania, Slovenia and Spain) and in other countries (Russia, Egypt). 

Editorial work and publications

She is the co-author of about 165 peer reviewed scientific publications, we report only 5 significant recent titles:

 (2013)  R. Fantoni, S. Almaviva, L. Caneve, F.. Colao, A. M. Popov, G. Maddaluno “Development of Calibration-Free Laser-Induced-Breakdown-Spectroscopy based techniques for deposited layers diagnostics on ITER-like tiles” Spectrochim. Acta B87, 153-160.

(2013 )L. Caneve, F. Colao, R. Fantoni, L. Fiorani "Scanning lidar fluorosensor for remote diagnostic of surfaces" Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 720, 164–167.      

(2014)   S. Almaviva, S. Botti, L. Cantarini,R. Fantoni, S. Lecci, A. Palucci, A. Puiu and A. Rufoloni "Ultrasensitive RDX detection with commercial SERS substrates” J. Raman Spectrosc, 45, 41–46.

(2014) V. Spizzichino, R. Fantoni “Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy in Archeometry: a review of its application and future perspectives” Spectrochim. Acta B 99, 201-209.

(2018) V. Lazic, M. Vadrucci, R. Fantoni, M. Chiari, A. Mazzinghi, A. Gorghinian, Applications of laser induced breakdown spectroscopy for cultural heritage: A comparison with XRF and PIXE techniques, Spectrochim. Acta Part B 149, 1–14.

Awards and prizes

Co-winner (together with R. Barbini, F. Colao, A. Palucci, S. Ribezzo) of the Prize “Carnia Alpe Verde” for the best project aimed at protection of green areas in 1992, issued by region Friuli Venezia-Giulia.

Winner of the prize “G. Stampacchia” fort he best first work in chemistry in 1980, issued by University of Rome “La Sapienza”.

Position/Role

Full Professor of Experimental Physics at the La SapienzaUniversity of Rome

Professional career

After obtaining a degree in Physics at the University La Sapienza of Rome in 1974, she received a training grant at the same University from 1975 to 1981. In 1978 she graduated from the School of Specialization in Physics (Nuclear Physics)(corresponding to a nowadays PhD). From 1980 to 1982 she was a two-year research  fellow at the Division of Experimental Physics of CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research). In 1981 she worked as researcher at the La SapienzaUniversity of Rome until 1988 when she became an associate professor at the University of Calabria. In 1992  and 1993 and in1999 and 2000 she returned to CERN as Visiting Scientist. In 1992 she moved as associate professor at University La Sapienza. Since 2011 she is  Full Professor of Experimental Physics at La Sapienza in Rome.

Scientific results

The research sector, in which Simonetta Gentile is dedicated, concerns the Experimental Physics of Elementary Particles. Her lines of investigation follow the Standard Model (the theory that describes three of the four known fundamental forces: the strong, electromagnetic and weak interactions, and all the elementary particles connected to them) or the Neutrino Physics, the structure functions of the nucleons, the properties of the intermediate bosons Z and W and the search for the Higgs bosons. It is currently part of the ATLAS project (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS), one of six particle detectors built for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the particle accelerator at CERN, in Switzerland. Simonetta Gentile is also involved in research and development for particle detectors for future accelerators. During her career, she participates in experiments aimed at identifying triggers and detectors of mu-mesons (muons, sort of heavy electrons). She collaborated with the Fermi Laboratory of Batavia (Chicago) in the search for particles with charm and with NASA working  at AMS, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a detector used in particle physics installed since 19 May 2011 on the International Space Station. It is designed for the research of new types of particles (antimatter, dark matter, strange matter) through the high-precision measurement of the composition of cosmic rays. Its measures will help scientists understand the laws behind the formation of the universe.

Editorial work and publications

Publishing activities and publications she is the author of numerous international publications, including:

(2018) Gentile S. , ATLAS [ATLAS Collaboration, Authors: 2856], Observation of Higgs boson production in association with a top quark pair at the LHC with the ATLAS detector, Phys. Lett. B 784 (2018) 173.

(2018) Gentile S. , ATLAS [ATLAS Collaboration, Authors: 2856],  Evidence for the associated production of the Higgs boson and a top quark pair with the ATLAS detector,Phys.Rev. D97 (2018) no.7, 072003.

(2017) Gentile S. , ATLAS Search for the dimuon decay of the Higgs boson in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detectorPhys. Rev. Lett. 119 (2017) 051802

(2016) Gentile S.,ATLAS & CMS Collaboration, Measurements of the Higgs boson production and decay rates and constraints on its couplings from a combined ATLAS and CMS analysis of the LHCppcollision data ats√=7 and 8 TeV, JHEP 08 (2016) 045

(2015) Gentile S.,ATLAS Search for the associated production of the Higgs boson with a top quark pair in multilepton final states with the ATLAS detector, Physics Letters B 749 (2015) 519-541

(2013) Corcella G, Gentile S. Heavy Neutral Gauge Bosons at LHC in an Extended MSSM.Nuclear Physics B, 866:293-366. 

(2012) Gentile S. Z 'production at LHC in an extended MSSM.Proceedings of Science, 36th International Conference on High Energy Physics, Melbourne, Australia. 

(2012) Gentile S. Phenomenology of new heavy neutral gauge bosons in an extended MSSM. Nuovo Cimento C, 035:349-360. 

(2012) Aad et al. [ATLAS Collaboration, Authors: 2932]. Observation of a new particle in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at the LHC"G. Physics Letters B 716, 1. 

(2010) Gentile S. Systematics in charged Higgs search in ATLAS. Proceedings of Science, Third International Workshop on Prospects for charged Higgs Discovery at colliders-CHARGED2010, Uppsala, Sweden.

Position/Role

President of the Italian Climate Network. Meteorologist for Meteo Expert.

Professional career

Serena Giacomin has a degree in Physics, specialising in the Physics of the Atmosphere and Climatology. She conducts weather forecasts and in-depth environmental analysis programmes on Mediaset channels and the main national radio stations. She is a management consultant for climate risk management and a lecturer and science popularizer. Since 2017 she has been president of the Italian Climate Network, the non-profit organisation set up in 2011 to strengthen the fight against climate change by disseminating scientific content, promoting knowledge and monitoring the institutional choices made in Italy and Europe. She is the scientific director of Educazione climatica, for the OK! CLIMA.

Scientific results

Serena Giacomin's main research interests are the analysis of meteorological models for forecasting activities and research on climate parameters for climate change risk assessment and management. She is also involved in school planning and training, for teachers and students, and in professional training and consultancy, for local administrations. 

Editorial work and publications

Serena Giacomin is the author, with Luca Perri, of Pinguini all’Equatore. Non tutto ciò che senti sul clima è vero (DeAgostini 2020). She collaborated in the production of the school manual for secondary schools Scienze Live (Garzanti Scuola 2020), and wrote Meteo che scegli, tempo che trovi (Imprimatur Editore 2018).

Awards and prizes

In 2020 she received the Gelso d'oro civic award from the City of Cernusco sul Naviglio, with the following motivation: "for her example of commitment to the dissemination of scientific information and issues related to climate change and environmental sustainability, at a time when, especially the younger generations, are urging society to become more aware of the serious risks that the planet runs - and with it life - if new policies and more environmentally friendly personal lifestyles are not adopted".

In 2021 she was awarded the DonnAmbiente prize, by 5 Terre Academy, "for having contributed to creating a new communicative approach to Science through multimedia and social media, combining the scientific rigour of complex subjects such as climatology and meteorology with an authoritative but always accessible and never banal language, with a particular focus on the younger generations. Also, for her commitment in person and through the association she chairs, the Italian Climate Network, to raise awareness of the climate issue and to actively participate in building a more sustainable future for the planet".

Position/Role

Physics teacher, science editor, physics textbooks author.

Professional career

Elena Joli gratueted in Physics in 1993 from the University of Bologna with a thesis on quantum gravity. She gets a DEA (Diplôme d'Études Approfondies) en Physique Theorique in Paris at the École Normale Supérieure and the Universitè de Jussieu-Paris VII in 1997. In this period, she becomes interested in epistemology and science communication and, back to Italy, in 2002 she gets a II level Master degree in Science Communication at ISAS_SISSA (International School for Advanced Studies) in Trieste, with a dissertation on the role of metaphor in science and its communication. Since 1995 she has been undertaking a permanent collaboration with the Italian publisher Edizioni Dedalo (Bari), first as a technical translator from English and French, then as a scientific consultant with the role of science editor, taking care of the publishing house's scientific dissemination series. Since 2003 she has been working with the educational publisher Zanichelli (Bologna) as an author of physics textbooks and digital materials with educational purposes for high school physics in collaboration with Professor Ugo Amaldi. Since 2001 she has been teaching physics part-time in high school. Since 2014 she has been a member of the editorial board of the scientific magazine Sapere; since 2018 she has been a member of the Scientific Committee of the Ecology Museum of the city of Cesena. In 2018, she joines Homeward Bound, a twelve-month program for women in science culminating with an expedition to Antarctica about global environmental issues including climate change.

Scientific results

Elena Joli's main areas of interest and research focused, during her activity performed at university in Bologna and in Paris, on two-dimensional models of quantum gravity for the description of black holes. Those years mark her approach to scientific issues, with a strong focus in theoretical modelling and, at the same time, an interest in the role of science communication. Then she began to deal with science communication in the publishing field, first as a translator of technical-scientific essays and articles then as a scientific editor and as an expert in physics education for different Italian publishers. He edited the Italian edition of the physics lectures that the Nobel Prize in Physics Marie Curie gave in 1907 in Paris thanks to a grant from the Centre National du livre and the French Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication. Currently, she is editing the Italian translation of an essay by Alain Aspect, Nobel Prize in Physics in 2022. In 2018 she was selected as a member of an australian expedition to Antarctica with a group of female scientists from 21 different countries all over the world to carry out research on the effects of climate change, and to strengthen the influence and visibility of women in the STEMM (Science, technology, engineering, medicine and mathematics) fields. She is speaker on subjects related to climate emergency and global warming for Australian and national TV and radio broadcasts (including Maestri RaiScuola), Science Festivals (Genova, Foligno, Bookcity Milano, Polignano "Festival del libro possibile", etc), TEdX Women Navigli Milano, the Masterclass Treccani Futura, a digital hub with educational purposes etc.

Editorial work and publications

[2021] Ioli E., "The circle", Wired (Climate change issue), 98 :155-61.

[2020] Ioli E., Antartide. Come cambia il clima, Bologna: Dedalo.

[2018] Ioli E., "Le regine delle nevi: una spedizione al femminile in Antartide", Sapere, 4:10-7 https://doi 10.12919/sapere.2018.04.1 

[2013] Ioli E., Nero come un buco nero, Bari: Dedalo (traslated in French by Le Pommier and in English by World Scientific Press; (forthcoming) translation in Chinese by Daylight Publishing House).

[2007] Ioli E., “Una piccola differenza", in Sandrelli, Gouthier, Ghattas (eds), Tutti i numeri sono uguali a cinque, pp 167-170; Springer.

[2006] Gouthier D., Ioli E., Le parole di Einstein, Bari: Dedalo.

Position/Role

Senior Researcher of the National Research Council (CNR), at the Institute of Nanotechnology (NANOTEC) in Lecce.

Professional career

After completion of her Physics Diploma at the University of Roma La Sapienza in 1995, she moved to France to do a PhD at the Université Cotê d`Azur. She obtained her PhD in Physics in December 1999. In 2000-2001, she has been INFM Post-doctoral fellow at the Physics Dept. of the University Tor Vergata in Rome. From January 2002 until November 2018, she had a researcher position at the National Research Council, in the Institute for Atmospheric Sciences and Climate. Starting from 2019, she is CNR Senior Scientist at the Institute of Nanotechnology in Lecce.

Scientific results

Alessandra is a theoretical physicist, expert of computational methods for fluid dynamics and complex flows. Starting from her PhD in 1996, her work focused on the statistical and dynamical description of turbulence, in simple and complex flows. From 2003, she studied the behaviour of turbulent suspensions of small particles, such as aerosols particles in air or cloud droplets, relevant for geophysical and engineering applications.  She participated and leaded large-scale numerical experiments within EU PRACE computing facilities. From 2006, she is the local coordinator (Unit of Lecce) of the Project “Particles and Fields in Complex flows” at the Institute of Nanotechnology (NANOTEC). She enriches the disciplinary research with physics education activities, by organising training schools and workshops for young fellows.

Editorial work and publications

Alessandra Lanotte is currently Deputy Editor at Europhysics Letters (EPL) EPS, and she was previously Associate Editor di Physics at Fluids, AIPP.

She was Guest editor of the Focus Issue "Turbulent regimes in Bose-Einstein Condensates", EPL (2021), and Focus Issue "Two-Dimensional Turbulence", Physics of Fluids (2017), and Guest Editor of the Special Issue "Flowing Matter Across the Scales", EPJE (2015), and  "Lagrangian Dynamics", Journal of Turbulence (2007).

Her publications include the following.

[2021] Panico R, Macorini G, Dominici L, Gianfrate A, Fieramosca A, De Giorgi M, Gigli G,  Sanvitto D, Lanotte A S, Ballarini D. Dynamics of a Vortex Lattice in an Expanding Polariton Quantum Fluid. Physical Review Letters 127 (4), 047401.

[2016] Biferale L, Bonaccorso F, Mazzitelli I M, van Hinsberg M A T, Lanotte A S, Musacchio S, Perlekar P, Toschi F. Coherent structures and extreme events in rotating multiphase turbulent flows. Phys. Rev. X 6, 041036.

[2015] Lanotte A S, Benzi R, Malapaka S K, Toschi F, Biferale L. Turbulence on a Fractal Fourier set. Phys. Rev. Letters 115, 264502.

[2013] Lanotte A S, Mazzitelli I M. Scalar turbulence in convective boundary layers with different entrainment fluxes. Journ. Atmos. Sci. 70, 248-265.

[2012] Baebler M U, Biferale L, Lanotte A S. Break-up of small aggregates driven by turbulent hydrodynamical stress. Phys Review E.85.025301.

[2010] Bec J, Biferale L, Lanotte A S, Scagliarini A, Toschi F. Turbulent pair dispersion of inertial particles. Journ. Fluid Mech. 645, 497.

[2009] Lanotte A S, Seminara A, Toschi F. Cloud droplet growth by condensation in homogeneous isotropic turbulence, Journ. Atmos. Sci. 66, 1685.

[2008] Arnéodo A, et al. Universal intermittent properties of particle trajectories in highly turbulent flows. Physical Review Letters 100 (25), 254504.

[2007] Bec J, Biferale L, Cencini M, Lanotte A S, Musacchio S, Toschi F. Heavy particle concentration in turbulence at dissipative and inertial scales. Phys Rev Lett. 98, 084502.

[2004] Biferale L, Boffetta G, Celani A, Devenish B J, Lanotte A, Toschi F. Multifractal statistics of Lagrangian velocity and acceleration in turbulence. Physical Review Letters 93 (6), 064502.

[2000] Celani A, Lanotte A, Mazzino A, Vergassola M. Universality and saturation of intermittency in passive scalar turbulence. Physical Review Letters 84 (11), 2385.

[1999] Lanotte A, Noullez A, Vergassola M, Wirth A. Large-scale dynamo produced by negative magnetic eddy diffusivities. Geophys. Astrophys. Fluid Dyn. 91, 131.

Position/Role

Senior researcher at National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Pisa (Italy)

Professional career

Sandra Leone obtained a master degree in physics from Pisa University in 1990 and a PhD from the same University in 1994. After a 2 years post-doc position, in 1997 she enters INFN-Pisa as researcher in experimental high energy physics. Since 2009 she is senior researcher in the same institute. She has the full professor qualification  (required to cover full professor positions in Italy). Since 2005 she is responsible for the organization of the Pisa European Particle Physics Masterclass for high school students. She was in the local organizing committee of 6 international congresses and was in charge of the organization of INFN local scientific seminars since 2002 until 2008.

Scientific results

Sandra Leone’s field of research is experimental particle physics. In 1989 she starts studying proton-antiproton collisions in the CDF experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, in the US. In particular she studied the production mechanism of the W boson. In 1994-1995 she studied the top quark production and was part of the team which observed for the first time the top quark in the CDF experiment. From 1997 to 2001 she works with silicon detectors and studies their application in experiments at hadron colliders. In particular, she is responsible in this period of the construction and test of 161 elementary units of the ISL silicon detector for the CDF experiment. In the following years she commits herself to the study of associated production of WZ intermediate bosons and the search for the Higgs boson.

In 2013 she joins the ATLAS experiment at CERN. She takes part to the construction and test of the new laser calibration system for the ATLAS hadron calorimeter. Since 2015 she studies the robustness and longevity of photomultiplier tubes, in the context of the foreseen upgrades of the ATLAS detector. She was invited to present scientific results on behalf of her collaborations in plenary session in  15 international conferences and in several national conferences, physics schools, seminars and conference parallel sessions, like ‘ichep2016’, one of the most important conferences in the field of high energy physics, which was held in Chicago

Editorial work and publications

She is referee of international journals and co-author of more than 1000 international papers, among which:

(2016) CDF Collaboration. Measurement of the WW and WZ production cross section using final states with a charged lepton and heavy-flavor jets in the full CDF Run II data set. Physical Review D, 94, 032008.

(2012) CDF Collaboration. Evidence for a Particle Produced in Association with Weak Bosons and Decaying to a Bottom-Antibottom Quark Pair in Higgs Boson Searches at the Tevatron. Physical Review Letters, 109, 071804.

(2007) CDF Collaboration. First Measurement of the Ratio of Central-Electron to Forward-Electron W Partial Cross Sections in proton-antiproton collisions at center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV. Physical Review Letters, 98, 251801.

(1995) CDF Collaboration. Observation of Top Quark Production in proton-antiproton collisions with the Collider Detector at Fermilab. Physical Review Letters, 74, 2626.
(1992) Abe F, [...] Leone S, et al. Lepton Asymmetry in W-boson Decays from proton-antiproton Collisions at center of mass energy of 1.8 TeV. Physical Review Letters, 68, 1458.

Awards and prizes

Sandra Leone held several prominent roles in her field and was part of several committees. In 1995 she received an award for young researchers from the Italian Physics Society (SIF). Since 1998 she is referee of Physical Review Letters and Physical Review D journals. Since 2013 she is member of the editorial staff of “Scienza per tutti”, the official outreach web site of INFN. Since 2008 she acted in several occasions as independent expert  evaluator for the European Seventh Framework Program and Horizon2020. From 2006 to 2011 she was part of the INFN Equal Opportunity Committee.

Position/Role

Lead researcher at Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l'energia e lo sviluppo economico sostenibile (ENEA)

Professional career

I got the Master ‘s degree in Physics in 1992 from Università degli Studi di Pisa, defending a thesis in particle physics based on studies performed at CERN, in Geneva. I obtained a research fellowship from the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica della Materia (INFM) on a research program in thermonuclear fusion physics and I started my collaboration with Consorzio RFX in Padua. The collaboration was maintained also when, in1993, I obtained a permanent position at ENEA.

Between 2000 and 2002 I spent several months at Max Planck Institut für Plasmaphysik in Munich to work on the tokamak experiment ASDEX Upgrade in the framework of Mobility Program funded by EURATOM.

In 2005 I got the PhD in Energetics from Università degli Studi di Padova. From 2006 I am lead researcher, always in ENEA.

Scientific results

My activity research is in the area of thermonuclear plasma physics, which aims at producing clean energy reproducing the physics processes that occur in the stars, like the Sun, in earth laboratories.

I work mainly on the Reversed Field Pinch experiment RFX-mod, located in Padua and operated by Consorzio RFX, a consortium of CNR, ENEA, INFN, Università di Padova and Acciaierie Venete.

I participate in several international collaborations, for example with the research team of the Madison Symmetric Torus experiment (MST) in Madison, Wisconsin (USA) and with the team of Large Helical Device (LHD) located  in Toki, Japan. More recently I started a collaboration with the Joint European Torus (JET) tokamak located in Culham, in UK.

I investigate the problem of particle and energy transport in thermonuclear plasmas through data analysis and development of numerical codes. I also contribute to the organization and realization of the experiments for the collection of data.

In 2008 I partecipated to the first observation of Single Helical Axis states (SHAx), the enhanced confinement states that occur when a toroidal RFP plasma is heated by a high current.

I devoted many efforts to characterize the transport barriers  observed in SHAx states and to clarify the relationship between the transport and the magnetic turbulence.

My recent research aims at exploiting  the results of solar physics, in particular of solar flares, to advance the comprehension of SHAx states.

The other important item of research regards so called ‘isotope effect’, namely the differences between plasmas of different hydrogen isotopes. I studied the isotope effect in RFX-mod and I participate in the isotope effect studies of JET and LHD.

Recently I worked in collaboration with LHD colleagues to the development of a code able to model plasmas with multiple magnetic axes. With the help of such code, named MAxS (Multiple Axis Solver) we will be able to study energy and particle transport in presence of magnetic islands

Editorial work and publications

She is the author of numerous publications in international journals and conference proceedings, including:

[2018] F.  Auriemma, D. Lopez-Bruna, R.  Lorenzini, B. Momo, I. Predebon, Y. Suzuki, A. López-Fraguas, Y. Narushima, F. Sattin, D. Terranova ‘A novel approach to studying transport in plasmas with magnetic islands’ Nuclear Fusion 58, 096037.

[2018] C.F. Maggi, H.Weisen, J.C. Hillesheim, A. Chankin, E. Delabie, L. Horvath, F. Auriemma, I.S. Carvalho, G. Corrigan, J. Flanagan, L. Garzotti, D. Keeling, D. King, E. Lerche, R. Lorenzini et al  ‘Isotope effects on L-H threshold and confinement in tokamak plasmas,’ Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 60, 125002.

[2016] Lorenzini R, Auriemma F, Fassina A, Martines E, Terranova D and Sattin F. Internal Transport Barrier Broadening through Subdominant Mode Stabilization in Reversed Field Pinch Plasmas, Physical Review Letters, 116, 185002.

[2015] Lorenzini R, Agostini M, Auriemma F, Carraro L, De Masi G, Fassina A, Franz P, Gobbin M, Innocente P, Puiatti ME, Scarin P, Zaniol B and Zuin M. The isotope effect in the RFX-modExperiment, Nuclear Fusion, 55, 043012.

[2012] Lorenzini R, Alfier A, Auriemma F, Fassina A, Franz P, Innocente P, Lopez-Bruna D, Martines E, Momo B, Pereverzev G, Piovesan P, Spizzo G, Spolaore M and Terranova D. On the energy transport in internal transport barriers of RFP plasmas, Nuclear Fusion, 52, 062004.

[2011] Bergerson WF, Auriemma F, Chapman BE, Ding WX, Zanca P, Brower DL, Innocente P, Lin L, Lorenzini R, Martines E, Momo B, Sarff JS and Terranova D. Bifurcation to 3D Helical Magnetic Equilibrium in an Axisymmetric Toroidal Device, Physical Review Letters, 107, 255001.

[2009] Lorenzini R, Martines E, Piovesan P, Terranova D, Zanca P, Zuin M et al. Self-organized helical equilibria as a new paradigm for ohmically heated fusion plasmas, Nature Physics, 5:570-574.

[2008] Lorenzini R, Terranova D, Alfier A, Innocente P, Martines E, Pasqualotto R, Zanca P. Single-Helical-Axis States in Reversed-Field-Pinch Plasmas, Physical Review Letters, 101, 025005.

[2007] Lorenzini R, Terranova D, Auriemma F, Cavazzana R, Innocente P, Martini S, Serianni G and Zuin M. Toroidally asymmetric particle transport caused by phase-locking of MHD modes in RFX-mod, Nuclear Fusion, 47: 1468.

Awards and prizes

In Novembre 2016, Rita Lorenzini get an invited lecture on the Improvement of the magnetic configuration in the Reversed Field Pinch through successive bifurcations at the 50th Annual Meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics, American Physical Society, Dallas, Texas.

She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the 41st European Physical Society Conference on Plasma Physics.

Position/Role

Associate professor at the University of Cagliari and at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics.

Professional career

After graduating in Physics at the University of Cagliari in 1999, she completed her training with a PhD in Physics at Oxford University which she obtained in 2003. In the same year she continued her studies with a post-doc in England again, first at Oxford and then at the University of Liverpool. From 2000 to 2006, she worked as a Scientific Associate with the Fermilab laboratory in Chicago, in the United States. In 2007, she returned to Italy, to Cagliari, as a researcher at the INFN (National Institute of Nuclear Physics) and, the following year, at the University. From 2012 to 2013 she collaborated with the CERN laboratory in Geneva. In 2015 she won an ERC Consolidator Grant with the CNRS (Center National de la Recherche Scientifique) and moved to Orsay, Paris, until the end of 2016. In 2016 she was also visiting professor at the University of Cambridge, UK. In 2017 she became associate professor at the University of Cagliari. She is currently involved in the study of heavy ion physics with the LHCb experiment at CERN and leads a research team of six post-docs, two students and two researchers divided between Orsay and Cagliari.

Scientific results

In 2002, together with her colleagues from the CDF experiment (Collider Detector at Fermilab) she observed the decay of the W and Z bosons (fundamental particles of the Standard Model) into electrons and measured the production cross section and the ratio for the first time to that energy, publishing the work in her PhD thesis. In 2003 she worked with a group of 14 people dedicated to the research of chargino and neutralino supersymmetric particles in their leptonic decay, coming to coordinate them and publishing the best world limit at that time on their mass and production cross section. In 2007 she became a member of the LHCb (Large Hadron Collider beauty) collaboration – the LHC accelerator experiment of the CERN, that aims to measure the parameters of the CP-violation and decays and rare phenomena related to hadrons in which the beauty quark can (b quark) can be found - at CERN in Geneva. She participated in several studies on the production of associated states of quark-antiquark (quarkonia) by publishing several works on the subject and collaborating with expert theorists of the field. From 2009 to 2013 she became the person responsible for that physics in the experiment. In 2015 she founded a new research group within LHCb opening the way to precision measurements of Quark Gluon Plasma at high speed, her current field of research.

Editorial work and publications

She is author of numerous national and international publications, including:

(2017) Aaij R, Manca G et al. [LHCb Collaboration]. Study of prompt D⁰ meson production in pPb collisions at √s_nn = 5 TeV, Journal of High Energy Physics, 1710, 090.

(2014) Manca G. Review on quarkonia production at LHC, International Journal of Modern Physics A, 29, 1430014.

(2013) Aaij R, Manca G et al. [LHCb Collaboration]. Production of J/Ψ and Υ mesons in pp collisions at √s = 8 TeV, Journal of High Energy Physics, 1306, 064.

(2013) A.A. Alves Jr., G. Manca et al. [LHCb Muon Collaboration]. Performance of the LHCb muon system, Journal of Instrumentation, 8, P02022.

(2012) Aaij R, Manca G et al. [LHCb Collaboration]. Measurement of Υ production in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV, European Physical Journal C, 72, 2025.

(2011) Aaij R, Manca G et al. [LHCb Collaboration] Measurement of J/Ψ production in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV. European Physical Journal C, 71, 1645.

(2010) Anelli M, Manca G et al. [LHCb Muon Collaboration]. Performance of the LHCb muon system with cosmic rays, Journal of Instrumentation ,5, P10003.

(2007) Aaltonen T, Manca G et al. [CDF Collaboration]. Search for chargino-neutralino production in pp collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99 191806.

(2008) Aaltonen T, Manca G et al. [CDF Collaboration]. Search for supersymmetry in pp collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV Using the tri-lepton signature of Chargino-Neutralino production, Physical Review Letters, 101, 251801.

(2005) D. Acosta, G. Manca et al. [CDF Collaboration]. First measurements of inclusive W and Z cross-sections from Run II of the Tevatron collider, Physical Review Letters, 94, 091803.

(2007) Abulencia A, Manca G et al. [CDF Collaboration]. Measurements of inclusive W and Z cross-sections in pp collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV, Journal of Physics G, 34, 2457.

She is a reviewer of the journals Journal of High Energy Physics and European Physical Journal.

Awards and prizes

In 2005 she won the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council fellowship for two years. In 2015 she gained a 5 years ERC Consolidator Grant for a total of 1.9 million euros. Since 2016 she is part of the AcademyNet network.
She is on the list of Top Italian Scientists since 2012.

Position/Role

Director of research at Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo

Professional career

Physics degree at the Palermo University (1983)

CNR fellowship (1985), to spend a period at Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics - Cambridge (MA).

Scholarship from the Institute for Interdisciplinary Applications of Physics of the CNR (1986-87).

PhD in Physics at the University of Palermo (1991) with a thesis on the background emission in the band 0.16-3.5 keV.

From 1991, astronomer at the Astronomical Observatory of Palermo. She spent a period at the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the University of Chicago thanks to a CNR / NATO Senior scholarship.

Today she is a Director of research and from 2012 to 2017 she was director of the Palermo Astronomical Observatory, a research facility of the National Institute of Astrophysics.

Giusi Micela has been member of several scientific teams for the study of the ESA space missions (Eddington, Plato, EChO, ARIEL) and of national and international projects from ground and from space. She has been the national responsible of the project funded by MIUR “A Way to Other Worlds – WOW”.  Moreover, she won a few EU programs, that allowed several European scientists to work at the Palermo Observatory. She is a member of the board of the Fundacion Galileo Galilei, of the board of the Gal Hassin, and of the International Advisory Committee of the Institute of Space Sciences (IEEC-CSIC), in Barcelona. Finally, she is member of the board of the PhD  Physics course at the Palermo University.

Scientific results

Her scientific activity is focused on the study of the physics of the upper stellar atmosphere and related themes. In particular, she was among the first researchers to carry out researches on the coronae of young stars through observations of open clusters and star formation regions with space missions (Einstein, Rosat, Chandra, XMM/Newton), determining how the high energy radiation in these stars is much more intense than today in the Sun. She has then dealt with the young stars, including star-forming regions and physical processes that govern the formation of stars in various bands of energy, and young stars in the solar neighborhood, highlighting how the region around the Sun was the site of a star formation episode over the last billion years.

Today, she works on extra-solar planets, in particular on the search of rocky planets around stars smaller than the Sun and on the study of star-planet interactions. She is co-investigator of the HARPS-N spectrograph at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, today the best instrument for the search of exoplanets in the northern hemisphere.  Finally, she is co-principal Investigator and Italian responsable for the ARIEL mission, an ESA mission for the observations of exo-planetary atmospheres.

Editorial work and publications

Giuseppina Micela is author of more than 300 papers published on international journals. In addition, she carries out activities of dissemination of astronomy, and in particular has published the book  Nascita e morte delle stelle per la collana "Farsi un'idea" for the series "Farsi un’idea" of “Il Mulino”. 

Selected papers:

[2016] Affer L, Micela G, Damasso M, Perger M, Ribas I et al. HADES RV program with HARPS-N at the TNG. GJ 3998: An early M-dwarf hosting a system of super-Earths, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 593, 117. 

[2015] Reale F, Gambino A F, Micela G, Maggio A, Widemann Th, Piccioni G. Using the transit of Venus to probe the upper planetary atmosphere, Nature Communications, 6, 7563.

[2013] Pepe F, Cameron Collier A, Latham, DW, Molinari E, Udry S, Bonomo A, Buchhave LA, Charbonneau,D, Cosentino R, Dressing CD, Dumusque X, Figueira P, Fiorenzano AFM, Gettel S, Harutyunyan A, Haywood RD, Horne K, Lopez-Morales M, Lovis C, Malavolta L, Mayor M, Micela G et al. An Earth-sized planet with an Earth-like density, Nature, 503, 7476:377-380.

[2012] Caramazza M, Micela G, Prisinzano L, Sciortino S, Damiani F, Favata F, Stauffer JR, Vallenari A, Wolk SJ. Star formation in the outer Galaxy: coronal properties of NGC 1893, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 539, 74.

[2008] Penz T, Micela G, Lammer H. Influence of the evolving stellar X-ray luminosity distribution on exoplanetary mass loss, Astronomy and Astrophysics, 477, 309-314.

[2006] Cecchi-Pestellini C, Ciaravella A, Micela G, Stellar X-ray heating of planet atmospheres, Astronomy and Astrophysics, 458:L13-L16.

[2003] Favata F, Micela, G. Stellar Coronal Astronomy, Space Science Reviews, 108, 577-708.

[1993] Micela G, Sciortino S, Favata F. Stellar birthrate in the Galaxy - Constraints from X-ray flux-limited surveys, Astrophysical Journal, 412:618-624.

[1988] Micela G, Sciortino S, Vaiana GS, Schmitt JHMM, Stern RA, Harnden FR Jr, Rosner R. The Einstein Observatory survey of stars in the Hyades cluster region, Astrophysical Journal, 325:798-819.

[1985] Micela G, Sciortino S, Serio S, Vaiana GS, Bookbinder J, Golub L, Harnden FR Jr, Rosner R. Einstein X-ray survey of the Pleiades - The dependence of X-ray emission stellar age, Astrophysical Journal, 292:172-180.

Awards and prizes

Giuseppina Micela has been a member of numerous scientific teams for the study of European Space Agency missions (Eddington, Plato, EChO, ARIEL) and other national and international projects from the ground and space. She has been national responsible for the MIUR-funded project "A Way to Other Worlds - WOW". She was also the winner of several European Commission programmes, which allowed several European researchers to carry out their activities at the Palermo Observatory. 

Today she is a member of the patronage of the Fundacion Galileo Galilei, which manages the Galileo National Telescope located in the Canary Islands, a member of the Board of Directors of the Gal Hassin Participation Foundation, and of the International Advisory Committee of the Institute of Space Sciences (IEEC-CSIC), in Barcelona. Finally, he is a member of the board of lecturers in Physics at the University of Palermo.

Position/Role

Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Messina and Visiting Professor at the Université Paris-Sud

Professional career

Since the degree in Physics in 1998 when she was 22, the Ph.D. in Physics and the European Doctorate for Users of Large Experimental Systems in Grenoble (France) in 2002, she carried out her research at several international laboratories. In 2003 she was an ATER researcher at the University of Lille (France), where from 2008 to 2010 she was a UNESCO-L'Oréal For Women in Science International Fellow. In 2011 she got the “qualification aux fonctions de professeur des universités” in section 28 and in 2016 in section 64 in France. In 2012 she was a European Molecular Biology Organization International Fellow at the Institut de Biochimie et Biophysique Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Université de Paris-Sud XI (France). In 2013 she got the national scientific qualification as a Full Professor in Experimental Physics, becoming in 2015 a Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Messina. Since July 2016 she is Visiting Scientist at the Université Paris Sud (France).

Scientific results

Federica Migliardo is a biophysicist carrying out her research in the domain of life sciences in the context of various international collaborations. Her research activity focuses mainly on the study of biological processes such as bioprotection, denaturation and stabilization of biomolecules, and more recently some infectious diseases (tuberculosis and schistosomiasis) and neurodegenerative diseases (Parkinson), with the aim of determining their molecular mechanisms and to understand the role of natural bioprotectors.

The idea of the research moves from the observation that different “extremophiles” (organisms loving the extreme) show extraordinary survival abilities under harsh conditions thanks to a particular sugar, trehalose, which can be used as a natural and innovative agent to protect and stabilize systems of biomedical and pharmaceutical interest, such as proteins, stem cells, plasma, antibodies and vaccines. Experimental studies, carried out through the synergistic application of complementary techniques, such as neutron and light spectroscopy, have shown that the sugar deforms the structure of water by preventing the formation of ice, thus protecting living beings from freezing, and it is also able to cover biological molecules creating a rigid environment that protects them from adverse environmental conditions.

The in-depth knowledge of the unique properties of trehalose has paved the way for new studies on some diseases for which there is no definitive solution yet. Trehalose can be used in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, as it is able to inhibit the aggregation of proteins, such as the alpha-synuclein in Parkinson’s syndrome, which in these diseases show anomalous behaviors, improving motor functions and raising life expectancy. On the other hand, trehalose is linked to particular fatty acids in the outer membrane of the tuberculosis bacterium, a membrane that creates a sort of barrier between the bacterium and the antibiotics, increasing its resistance; the goal of this research is to make this barrier more fragile and therefore more permeable to drugs that will be much more effective. The same philosophy is used in the study of schistosomiasis, parasitosis that represents the second tropical disease, since the parasites protect themselves from the attacks of our immune system thanks to a very special external membrane that passes nutrients but not drugs.

Editorial work and publications

She is coauthor of more than 170 scientific articles published in international journals, including:

[2017] Migliardo F, Angell CA, Magazù S. Contrasting dynamics of fragile and non-fragile polyalcohols through the glass, and dynamical, transitions: A comparison of neutron scattering and dielectric relaxation data for sorbitol and glycerol, Biochimica Biophysica Acta - General Subjects, 1861, 3540.
[2015] Migliardo F, Salmeron C, Bayan N. Mobility and temperature resistance of trehalose mycolates as key-characteristics of the outer membrane of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics, 33, 447.
[2014] Bousset L, Brewee C, Melki R, Migliardo F. Dynamical Properties ofa-Synuclein in Soluble and Fibrillar Forms by Quasi Elastic Neutron Scattering, BBA - Proteins and Proteomics, 1844, 1307.
[2014] Migliardo F, Tallima H, El Ridi R. Is There a Sphingomyelin-Based Hydrogen Bond Barrier at the Mammalian Host-Schistosome Parasite Interface?, Cell Biochemistry and Biophysics, 68, 359.
[2013] Fenimore PW, Frauenfelder H, Magazù S, McMahon BH, Mezei F, Migliardo F, Young RD, Stroe I. Concepts and Problems in Protein Dynamics, Chemical Physics, 424, 2.
[2011] Magazù S, Migliardo F, Parker SF. Vibrational Properties of Bioprotectant Mixtures of Trehalose and Glycerol, Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 115, 11004.
[2007] Lishchuk SV, Lokotosh TV, Magazù S, Malomuzh NP, Migliardo F. Role of the orientation disorder in the formation of fragility of glassy water and glycerol-like liquids, Physical Review E, 76, 061504.
[2007] Magazù S, Migliardo F, Ramirez-Cuesta AJ. Concentration Dependence of Vibrational Properties of Bioprotectant/Water Mixtures by Inelastic Neutron Scattering, Journal of Royal Society Interface, 4, 167.
[2005] Lerbret A, Bordat P, Affouard F, Descamps M, Migliardo F. How Homogeneous are the Trehalose, Maltose and Sucrose Water Solutions? An Insight from Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 109, 11046.
[2003] Vertessy BG, Magazù S, Mangione A, Migliardo F, Brandt A. Structure of Escherichia coli dUTPase in Solution: A Small Angle Neutron Scattering Study, Macromolecular Bioscience, 3, 477.

Awards and prizes

Federica Migliardo has received several international and national awards and recognitions, such as the International BioVision for Life Sciences 2011 Prize, the UNESCO-L'Oréal For Women in Science 2008 International and 2005 National Fellowships, the International EUWIIN (European Union Women Inventors) and Innovators Network) Special Recognition Award 2007, the Sapio Award for Italian Research 2006, the Prize for the best PhD thesis in neutron spectroscopy of the National Institute of Physics of Matter 2003 and the Award for the best Italian graduate in Italy of the Italian Physical Society 2001.

Position/Role

Senior Researcher, Photonics Micro and Nanostructures Laboratory Head at the ENEA Research Center of Frascati (RM), Italy

Professional career

Senior research physicist (Physics Degree at University of Rome, La Sapienza, 1984). After three years of employment in the R&D Division of the Telespazio S.p.A., a spatial telecommunication company, in Rome, since 1988 she has worked as permanent researcher at the ENEA Research Center of Frascati (RM). Starting in 2010 she is responsible of the Photonics Photonics Micro and Nanostructures Laboratory. In August 2008 she was Visiting Researcher at the Federal Technological University of Paranà, in Brasil. In 2013 she got the National Scientific Qualification as University Full Professor for Experimental Physics of Matter.

Scientific results

She has more than 30 years of experience in the field of optical properties of point defects in insulating materials and light-emitting organic and inorganic thin films for photonic devices (laser, LED, OLED, optical waveguides and microcavities) and novel radiation detectors for imaging and dosimetry, applied in scientific, medical and nuclear fields. She was the coordinator of an ESPRIT European project (1996-97) and the scientific leader of several projects and tasks at national and internal level, performed in collaboration with Universities, research institutions and Italian and foreigner industries. The relevance of the results obtained on the study of point defects in thin films and their application in novel miniaturized optical devices and solid-state radiation detectors is attested by numerous communications to congresses, among them invited lectures in prestigious international symposia. She is coinventor of several national and international patents.

Editorial work and publications

She published more than 200 scientific articles on international journals with referees, among them:
 

[2017] Piccinini M, Nichelatti E, Ampollini A, Picardi L, Ronsivalle C, Bonfigli F, Libera S, Vincenti MA and Montereali RM. Proton beam dose-mapping via color centers in LiF thin film detectors by fluorescence microscopy, Europhysics Letters, 117:37004-1-5. 

[2016] Montereali RM, Bonfigli F, Piccinini M, Nichelatti E, Vincenti MA. Photoluminescence of colour centres in lithium fluoride thin films: from solid-state miniaturised light sources to novel radiation imaging detectors, Journal of Luminescence, 170:761-769.

[2016] Fastampa R, Missori M, Braidotti MC, Conti C, Vincenti MA, Montereali RM. Temperature behaviour of optical absorption bands in colored LiF crystals, Results in Physics, 6:74-75.

[2015] Piccinini M, Ambrosini F, Ampollini A, Picardi L, Ronsivalle C, Bonfigli F, Libera S, Nichelatti E, Vincenti MA and Montereali RM. Photoluminescence of radiation-induced color centers in lithium fluoride thin films for advanced diagnostics of proton beams, Applied Physics Letters, 106: 261108_1_4.

[2014] Chiamenti I, Bonfigli F, Gomes ASL, Michelotti F, Montereali RM and Kalinowski HJ. Optical characterization of femtosecond laser induced active channel waveguides in lithium fluoride crystals, Journal of Applied Physics, 115, 2:023108-1-7.

[2013] Francini R, Montereali RM, Nichelatti E, Vincenti MA, Canci N, Segreto E, Cavanna F, Di Pompeo F, Carbonara F, Fiorillo G, Perfetto F. Optical characterization at liquid Argon temperature of Tetraphenyl-butadiene films on glass and specular reflector substrates in the VUV-VIS range of wavelengths, Journal of Instrumentation, JINST 8:P09006.

[2012] Montereali RM, Bonfigli F, Menchini F and Vincenti MA. Optical spectroscopy and microscopy of radiation-induced light-emitting point defects in lithium fluoride crystals and films, Low Temperature Physics 38, 8:779-785, doi: 10.1063/1.4740241; Fizika Nizkikh Temperatur 38, 8:976-984.

[2010] Montereali RM, Almaviva S, Bonfigli F, Cricenti A, Faenov A, Flora F, Gaudio P, Lai A, Martellucci S, Nichelatti E, Pikuz T, Reale L, Richetta M, Vincenti MA. Lithium Fluoride Thin Films Detectors for Soft X-Ray Imaging at High Spatial Resolution, Nuclear Instruments and Methods, A, 623:758-762.

[2007] Sekatskii SK, Dietler G, Bonfigli F, Loreti S, Marolo T, Montereali RM. Subwavelength-Size Local Fluorescent Sources based on Color Centers in LiF for Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscopy, Journal of Luminescence, 122-123:362-364. 

[2004] Montereali RM, Gambino S, Loreti S, Gagliardi S, Pace A, Baldacchini G, Michelotti F. Morphological, Electrical and Optical Properties of Organic Light-Emitting Diodes with a LiF/Al Cathode and an Al-Hydroxyquinoline/Diamine Junction, Synthetic Metals, 143: 171-174.

Awards and prizes

She is permanent member on the International Advisory Committee of the DIM (Defects in Insulating Materials) conference series and of the technical and organizing committees of several national and international workshops and symposia.
 

Position/Role

Researcher at the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate of the National Research Council of Italy (ISAC-CNR)

Professional career

Elisa Palazzi gets her Laurea degree in Physics in 2003 and a PhD in Physical Modelling for Environmental Protection in 2008, both from the University of Bologna and in collaboration with the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate of the Italian National Research Council (ISAC-CNR). During that period, she works mainly on the measurement of air pollutants in urban areas using remote sensing techniques and on the development of modelling tools to correctly analyse and interpret these measurements.  At ISAC-CNR she carries out a post-doctoral research that includes a contract founded by the European Space Agency (ESA) aimed at studying the atmospheric circulation and its changes by means of satellite measurements of long-lived atmospheric gases. These studies bring her closer to the later research activities, focused on climate and climate change, which Elisa Palazzi has been undertaking since 2011, when she becomes permanent staff researcher at ISAC-CNR, based in Turin. Since then, she has been studying climate change in mountain regions, focusing on elevation-dependent warming and high-altitude changes in precipitation, and analysing their impacts on water resources, which are very relevant for low-land regions too. She currently co-coordinates an international network of mountain studies called GEO-GNOME (Group on Earth Observations-Global Network for Observations and Information in Mountain Environments) and an Initiative of the European Climate Research Alliance (ECRA) on the changes in the hydrological cycle. She is currently author and co-author of 52 peer-reviewed papers (Scopus database).

Scientific results

Elisa Palazzi began her research activity at CNR, in Bologna, during the work performed for her Laurea degree and her PhD, working on the development and application of radiative transfer models, based on the Monte Carlo techniques, for the interpretation of remote sensing measurement of atmospheric trace gases performed with passive remote sensing (DOAS technique). Those years mark an approach which will characterize even later the research performed by Elisa Palazzi, that is, an integration between measurements and models. From 2009 to 2011, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), she was principal investigator of a project included in the ESA "Changing Earth System Network" programme, in which she used satellite measurements of long-lived trace gases (CO2, CH4, N2O, CFC) to diagnose the characteristics of atmospheric transport through the subtropical and polar dynamical barriers. Since 2011, she works on the study of the climate system and in particular on climate change and variability in high altitude regions that are considered sentinels of the changing climate. Her research focuses on the so-called elevation-dependent warming mechanism, and on observed and projected changes in precipitation, both influencing the mountain cryosphere. She is author and co-author of several peer-reviewed papers and she co-coordinates an international research network for the retrieval of climate data in high-altitude regions.

Editorial work and publications

Elisa Palazzi is  Editor of the Section “Remote Sensing of the Water Cycle” in the Journal Remote Sensing – MPDI, since 2019.

She is co-editor (with Antonello Provenzale and Klaus Fraedrich) of the book The Fluid Dynamics of Climate(CISM International Centre for Mechanical Sciences 564, Courses and Lectures, Springer, 2016).

12 Most relevant publications:

[2020] Rangwala I, Palazzi E, Miller JR. Projected Climate Change in the Himalayas during the Twenty-First Century.In: Dimri A., Bookhagen B., Stoffel M., Yasunari T. (eds) Himalayan Weather and Climate and their Impact on the Environment. Springer, Cham

[2019] Regine H, Golam R, [...], Palazzi E et al. High Mountain Areas. In: IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

[2019] Palazzi E, Mortarini L, Terzago S, von Hardenberg J. Elevation-dependent warming in global climate model simulations at high spatial resolution, Clim Dyn 52: 2685. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-018-4287-z.

[2018] Pasetto D, Arenas-Castro S, Bustamante J, [...], Palazzi E, et al. , Integration of satellite remote sensing data in ecosystem modelling at local scales: practices and trends, Methods Ecol Evol. 2018; 9: 1810– 1821. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13018

[2017] Terzago S, von Hardenberg J, Palazzi E, Provenzale A. Snow water equivalent in the Alps as seen by gridded data sets, CMIP5 and CORDEX climate models, The Cryosphere, 11, 1625-1645, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-1625-2017.

[2017] Palazzi E, Filippi L, von Hardenberg J, Insights into elevation-dependent warming in the Tibetan Plateau-Himalayas from CMIP5 model simulations, Clim. Dyn., 48 (11-12), 3991-4008.

[2015] Pepin N, Bradley RS, [...], Palazzi E, et al. Elevation- dependent warming in mountain regions of the world. Nature Climate Change, 5 (5), pp. 424-430. DOI: 10.1038/nclimate2563.

[2015] Turco M, Palazzi E, von Hardenberg J, Provenzale A, Observed climate change hotspots. Geophys. Res. Lett., 42, 3521–3528. doi: 10.1002/2015GL063891.

[2015] Palazzi E, Von Hardenberg J, Terzago S, Provenzale A. Precipitation in the Karakoram- Himalaya: a CMIP5 view, Climate Dynamics, Vol 45, pp. 21-45, DOI: 10.1007/s00382-014- 2341-z.

[2014] Filippi L, Palazzi E, Von Hardenberg J, Provenzale A. Multidecadal variations in the relationship between the NAO and winter precipitation in the Hindu Kush-Karakoram, Journal of Climate, 27 (20), pp. 7890-7902. DOI: 10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00286.1.

[2014] D'Onofrio D, Palazzi E, Von Hardenberg J, Provenzale A, Calmanti S. Stochastic rainfall downscaling of climate models, Journal of Hydrometeorology, 15 (2), pp. 830-843. DOI: 10.1175/JHM-D-13-096.1.

[2013] Palazzi E, Von Hardenberg J, Provenzale A. Precipitation in the hindu-kush karakoram himalaya: Observations and future scenarios, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 118 (1), pp. 85-100. DOI: 10.1029/2012JD018697

Awards and prizes

Italian Prize “Premio Gian Giacomo Drago e Fausta Rivera Drago” obtained in 2017 awarded by the “Istituto Lombardo Accademia di Scienze e Lettere” to a researcher (less than 40 years old) for his/her relevant research on the theme of climate change and its effects on the environment and human health.

Position/Role

Full Professor in Theoretical Physics at the University of Milano Bicocca.

Professional career

In 1984 Silvia Penati gets the master’s in physics at the University of Milano. In 1985 she wins a scholarship to enter a PhD program at the physics Department of University of Milano, where she obtains the PhD title in Physics in 1989. In 1988 she wins a postdoctoral fellowship at Brandeis University, Massachusetts, US, where she carries out her research until 1990. She comes back to Milano University with a second postdoctoral fellowship, where she wins a competition for a permanent researcher position starting in 1992. In 2000 she moves to the new-born University of Milano-Bicocca where she becomes associate professor in 2003 and full professor in 2017. In 2013 she wins, as Principal Investigator, a European COST project “The String Theory Universe”, that involves about 500 researchers from 25 European countries, a scientific networking project in theoretical physics with a special focus on the problem of the low percentage of women in this community. From 2012 to 2018 she is President of the Teaching Council of the Physics Department, University of Milano-Bicocca. Since 2020 she chairs a university working group on gender issue in academia, and the European network GenHET, based at CERN-Geneve, active in the promotion of female excellence in theoretical physics. She participates as invited speaker in many international congresses. She organizes several international conferences; she constantly acts as peer revisor for the main international journals of theoretical physics and for EU and Australian Research Council projects.

Since 1992 she has been teaching Quantum Mechanics, General Relativity, Quantum Field Theory and Mathematical Methods for Physics at bachelor’s and master’s in Physics. She periodically delivers supersimmetry courses at international PhD schools. Along her career she has supervised about one hundred bachelor and master students, and about fifteen PhD students. 

Since 1985 she has been carrying out periodical outreach activities in secondary schools and for the general public.

Scientific results

Silvia Penati started her career in research working on various aspects of string theory, a theory that was originally proposed as an attempt to unify the four fundamental forces, gravity included, but that subsequently developed into a powerful mathematical framework, inspiring new ideas not only in the context of theoretical particle physics, but more generally in the study of strongly correlated systems. In this context, her main contributions regarded the study of the interacting dynamics of particles with arbitrary spin, string sigma models coupled to gravity, and the study of integrable systems in two dimensions that may have interesting applications to the description of bidimensional phenomena like the Kondo effect, dissipative systems, quantum impurities and the quantum Hall effect. In subsequent years, Silvia Penati studied supersymmetric quantum field theories and supergravity, inspired by string theory and relevant for the most recent developments in the holographic description of gravity. In this context the most recent and relevant results concern supersymmetric gauge theories in three dimensions and the development of non-trivial theoretical tests of the AdS/CFT correspondence - an explicit realization of the holographic principle for the description of quantum gravity and black holes - and the description of physical systems with defects and impurities.  

Editorial work and publications

Silvia Penati has co-authored more than 100 publications in high impact international journals with peer review. 

See below a selection:

[1988] Howe P S, Penati S, Pernici M, Townsend P K, Wave Equations for arbitrary spin from Quantization of the Extended Supersymmetric Spinning Particle, Physics Letters B215 (1988): 555-558.

[1995] Penati S, Zanon D, Quantum Integrability in two-dimensional systems with boundary, Physics Letters B358 (1995): 63-72.

[2000] Mussardo G, Penati S, A quantum Field Theory with Infinite Resonance States, Nuclear Physics B567: 454-492.

[2000] Gates S J, Grisaru M T, Penati S, Holomorphy, minimal homotopy and 4D, N=1 Bardeen-Gross- Jackiw anomaly, Physics Letters B481 (2000): 397-407. 

[2002] Arutyunov G, Penati S, Petkou A C, Santambrogio A, Sokatchev E, Nonprotected operators in N=4 SYM and multiparticle states of AdS(5) SUGRA, Nuclear Physics B643 (2002): 49-78.

[2003] Klemm D, Penati S, Tamassia L, Non(anti)commutative superspace, Classical Quantum Gravity 20 (2003): 2905-2916.

[2003] Grisaru M T, Penati S, Romagnoni A, Two loop renormalization for nonanticommutative N=1/2 supersymmetric Z model, JHEP 08 (2003):003.

[2005] Mauri A, Penati S, Santambrogio A, Zanon D, Exact results in planar N=1superconformal Yang-Mills theory, JHEP 11 (2005): 024.

[2010] Bianchi M S, Penati S, Siani M, Infrared stability of N=2 Chern-Simons matter theories, JHEP 05 (2010): 106.

[2011] Bianchi M S, Leoni M, Mauri A, Penati S, Santambrogio A, Scattering Amplitudes/Wilson Loop duality in ABJM theory, JHEP 01 (2011): 073.

[2017] Bianchi M S, Griguolo L, Mauri A, Penati S, Preti M, Seminara D, Towards the exact Bremsstrahlung function of ABJM theory, JHEP 08 (2017): 022.

[2021] Penati S, Superconformal Line Defects in 3D, Universe 7 (2021) 9: 348.

The complete list of papers can be found at

https://inspirehep.net/literature?sort=mostrecent&size=25&page=1&q=a%20penati%2Cs

Position/Role

Researcher at Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma (INAF)

Professional career

After graduation in Physics from the University of Rome La Sapienza, she continues her education with a PhD in Astronomy from the same university in 2009 and with a postgraduate specialization training course in Space Science and Technology from the University of Rome Tor Vergata in 2012. She has been research assistant at the Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma since 2006, and in 2010 she is visiting scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Germany. In 2012 she does an internship at Thales Alenia Space. She continues her research activity at the Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma where she is currently research staff.

Scientific results

Paola Santini studies the evolution of galaxies from their formation in the very early stages of our Universe. By measuring and interpreting their signals, she tries to understand the physical mechanisms behind their evolution, and explain how the Universe came to be what we observe today. Some of the questions she tries to answer are, for example, how and how quickly galaxies form their stars, how and why they stop forming stars at some point, and how these processes vary over time. To this end, she makes use of the best available images acquired by state-of-the-art instruments from space and from the ground as part of major extragalactic surveys, the result of large international collaborations. She mainly exploits optical, infrared and submillimetre observations. Her studies cast a direct glance into the distant past of our Universe, observing the faint light from galaxies at different epochs of cosmic evolution.

Editorial work and publications

Paola Santisi is author and co-author of more than 200 scientific publications. The updated list is available on ADS Public Library.

Awards and prizes

In 2015 she is awarderd the prize Italian Young Researcher from "Gruppo 2003 for scientific research".

Position/Role

Full professor in Astrophysics at the University of Calabria (Arcavacata di Rende, Italy)

Professional career

After obtaining her PhD in Physics at the University of Calabria, Sandra Savaglio became a Fellow and Senior Research Scientist at some important international research centres such as the John Hopkins University, the European Southern Observatory (Munich) and the Space Telescope Science Institute (Baltimore). He also works in Germany, at the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. In addition to his research, he teaches Astrophysics at John Hopkins and the Technical University in Munich. In 2004 he ended up on the cover of Time Magazine, chosen as a symbol of the European brain drain to the United States. Almost 10 years later, in 2014, she returned to Italy: the Board of Directors of the University of Calabria decided to proceed with a direct call for the scholar. Savaglio accepted, and today she is full professor of Astrophysics at the University of Arcavacata (Cosenza).

Scientific results

I principali interessi di ricerca di Sandra Savaglio riguardano la cosmologia osservativa, l'arricchimento chimico dell'universo e dei fenomeni esplosivi, in particolare le galassie lontane e le galassie che ospitano le esplosioni più energetiche dell'universo mai osservate finora: i lampi gamma (Gamma Ray Burts, GRB), che possono durare da pochi millisecondi a diverse decine di minuti. Per fare ciò utilizza i più potenti telescopi a raggi ultravioletti, infrarossi e ottici. Nel 2006 ha creato il database pubblico GRB Host Studies (GHostS), che contiene informazioni relative alle galassie che ospitano lampi gamma utilizzato dal 2007 al 2015 per oltre 33 studi di altissimo livello. GHostS rappresenta la più grande e completa banca dati di questo tipo al mondo.

Editorial work and publications

Sandra Savaglio written two books: Tutto l’universo per chi ha poco spazio-tempo (Mondadori, 2018) and Senza Attendere (Rubettino, 2006), in collaboration with Mario Caligiuri.

She signed over 200 publications in international journals conference proceedings, including:

(2015) Greiner J, Savaglio S, et al. A very luminous magnetar-powered supernova associated with an ultra-long γ-ray burst, Nature, 523, 189.

(2012) Savaglio S et al. Supersolar metal abundances in two galaxies at z ~ 3.57 revealed by the GRB 090323 afterglow spectrum, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 

(2009) Savaglio S, Glazebrook K, Le Borgne D. The Galaxy Population Hosting Gamma-Ray Bursts, The Astrophysical Journal.

(2006) Savaglio S. GRBs as cosmological probes: cosmic chemical evolution, New Journal of Physics.

(2005) Savaglio S et al. The Gemini Deep Deep Survey. VII. The Redshift Evolution of the Mass-Metallicity Relation, The Astrophysical Journal.

(2004) Glazebrook K, Abraham RG, McCarthy PJ, Savaglio S, et al. A high abundance of massive galaxies 3-6 billion years after the Big Bang,  Nature, 430, 181.

(2004) Savaglio S & Fall SM. Dust Depletion and Extinction in a Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow, The Astrophysical Journal.

(2003) Savaglio S, Fall SM & Fiore F. Heavy-Element Abundances and Dust Depletions in the Host Galaxies of Three Gamma-Ray Bursts, The Astrophysical Journal.

(1999) Savaglio S. The Lyα Forest of the Quasar in the Hubble Deep Field South, The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

(2000) Savaglio S, Carbone V. Scaling in Atletics World Records, Nature, 404, 244. 
Nel 2006 inoltre pubblica il libro Senza attendere per denunciare la condizione della ricerca scientifica in Italia.

Awards and prizes

In 2008 he was awarded the international "Pythagoras" prize for scientists who have distinguished themselves for their achievements in the fields of physics and mathematics. In 2010 and 2011 she won the international awards dedicated to important personalities of Calabrian origin "Made in Calabria and Calabria in the World". In 2014 she was awarded the international "Prime Donne" prize, given to women capable of enhancing the presence of women in society. In 2015 she was awarded the international "Pericle d'Oro" prize and also received the international "Frescobaldi" prize. In 2016, she received the international "Vittorio De Sica" award.

Position/Role

Full Professor at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark 

Professional career

Irene Tamborra studied Physics at the University of Bari in Italy. She was awarded a Bachelor's of Science in Physics in 2005 and a Master of Science in Theoretical Physics in 2007. She graduated from the University of Bari in 2011 with a Ph.D. thesis in Astroparticle Physics. She was an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich from 2011 to 2013 and research associate at the GRAPPA Centre of Excellence of the University of Amsterdam from 2013 to 2015. She joined the University of Copenhagen as Knud Højgaard Assistant Professor in 2016, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2017 and Full Professor in 2021. 

Scientific results

Tamborra’s research focuses on the interface between astrophysics and particle physics. She has proposed a number of ideas concerning the exploration of a wide range of astrophysical objects by using neutrinos as probes. She has played a pioneering role in connecting the theoretical modeling of the microphysics of astrophysical sources to observations within a multi-messenger framework. Irene Tamborra's work has also provided fundamental contributions to our understanding of neutrino flavor conversion in compact astrophysical sources (such as core-collapse supernovae and neutron star merger) as well as in the early universe, the modeling of physics beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics, and the nucleosynthesis of the heavy elements. In 2014, she discovered a new phenomenon occurring in core-collapse supernovae just before their explosion: LESA. LESA consists of an astonishingly large asymmetric emission of electron neutrinos with respect to electron antineutrinos.

Editorial work and publications

Irene Tamborra is author of numerous international scientific publications. The full list is available online on Google Scholar.

Awards and prizes

In 2009, she receive the “Antonio Stanghellini” award from the Italian Physics Society. In 2011 she received the honorable mention for the “Fubini” award from the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN); during the same year, she became an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow. In 2019, she was elected the Carlsberg Distinguished Associate Professor, received the MERAC Prize from the European Astronomical Society, and the S.P. Duggal award from the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. In 2020, she received the Kvinder i Fisik Prize for being a role model from the Danish Network for Women in Physics. She is member of the International Astronomical Union, the European Astronomical Society, and plays a leading role in a number of international boards.

Position/Role

Senior researcher at the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Milano section.

Professional career

After graduating in Physics at the University of Trieste in 1977 she continued her education first as a Summer Student in 1978 at CERN and then attending the Postgraduate School in Physics in Trieste, as a fellow of the Consortium for the Increase of Studies and Research of the Physics Departments of the University of Trieste. In 1983 she joined the National Institute of Nuclear Physics, Trieste section, as a researcher and later the section of Milan. She has been a scientific associate at CERN in Geneva since 1978.

Scientific results

Clara Troncon's two main research strands are the study of elementary particle physics with accelerators and, specifically, measurements of the properties of Heavy Flavours, precision verifications of the Standard Model, including the search for and then discovery of the Higgs boson, and the search for evidence of new physics beyond the Standard Model. The second strand includes the development, design and implementation of microstrip and pixel silicon sensors and the development, design, implementation, commissioning and operation of vertex detectors. Her research activity began at CERN, where from 1979 to 1986 he devoted herself to the study of quark charm with the EHS (European Hybrid Spectrometer) experiments at the SPS (SuperProtoSynchrotron) accelerator. From 1986 to 2000 she took part in the DELPHI experiment at the LEP accelerator at CERN, where she contributed to the precision measurements of the neutral Z0 and W bosons, the verification of the Standard Model and the search for the Higgs boson. Her group collaborated in the construction of the DELPHI silicon vertex detector. In 1997, she began participating in the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, where she played an important role in the construction of the pixel detector. After the installation of this detector in 2008, she devoted herself to the search and study of the Higgs boson and the search for supersymmetric particles and signals of a new physics at the TeV(teraelettronvolt) scale. She was also involved from 1996 to 2000 in study activities for future Linear Colliders through the Conceptual Design of the Next Linear Collider and the feasibility study for the search for the Higgs boson. From 2001 to 2006, through the RD50 collaboration, she was involved in the research and development of radiation-resistant semiconductor detectors for very high luminosity colliders.

Editorial work and publications

She has signed over than 1.100 scientific publications, including: 

(2016) ATLAS Collaboration, Aad G, Troncon C, et al. Search for dark matter produced in association with a Higgs boson decaying to two bottom quarks in pp collisions at √s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Physical Review D, 93: 7, 072007.

(2016) ATLAS Collaboration, Aad G, Troncon C, et al. Search for magnetic monopoles and stable particles with high electric charges in 8 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector. Physical Review D, 93:5, 05200.

(2013) ATLAS Collaboration, Aad G, Troncon C, et al. Evidence for the spin-0 nature of the Higgs boson using ATLAS data. Physical Review Letters B, 726, 120-144.

(2012) ATLAS Collaboration, Aad G, Troncon C, et al. Search for squarks and gluinos using final states with jets and missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector in √s=7 TeV proton-proton collisions. Physical Letters B, 710, 67-85.

(2012) ATLAS Collaboration, Aad G, Troncon C, et al. Observation of a new particle in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Physical Review Letters B, 716, 1-29.

(2011) ATLAS Collaboration, Aad G, Troncon C, et al. Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV. The European Physical Journal A, C71, 1577.

(2010) ATLAS Collaboration, Aad G, Troncon C, et al. Observation of a Centrality-Dependent Dijet Asymmetry in Lead-Lead Collisions at √s_NN=2.77 TeV with the ATLAS Detector at the LHC. Physical Review Letters, 105, 252303.

(2008) ATLAS Collaboration, Aad G, Troncon C, et al. The ATLAS Experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. JINST 3: S08003.

(1998) Accomando E, Troncon C, et al. Physics with e+ e- colliders. Physics Report C, 299, 1. Amsterdam (Olanda).

(1996) DELPHI Collaboration, Abreu P, Troncon C, et al. Performance of the DELPHI Detector. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 378, 57.

Awards and prizes

From 2006 to 2012 she was an elected member of the INFN CSN1 (National Scientific Commission 1, Particle Physics with Accelerators) and referee for the Babar experiment in CSN1. From 2011 to 2014 she was a member of ANVUR (National Agency for the Evaluation of Research Quality), MIUR and coordinator of subGEV02 (Experimental, Particle and Nuclear Physics).

From 2012 to present Clara Troncon is part of the INFN Evaluation Working Group (VQR final phase) and head of the delegation for CSN1. Since 2013, upon designation by the INFN President, she has been appointed by the Director General of CERN as Italian delegate in the CERN ACCU (Advisory Committee of CERN Users), a position subsequently renewed. In 2015 she is designated by ACCU as ACCU Representative in the CERN Scientific Information Policy Board. In the same year she became a member of GEV02 (Expert Group for the Evaluation of Physical Sciences for the VQR (Evaluation of Research Quality 2015-2017, for ANVUR-MIUR and coordinator of subGEV02_I (Experimental, Particle and Nuclear Physics), a position she still holds today.

Position/Role

Chief Diversity Officer, European Space Agency

Professional career

Ersilia Vaudo Scarpetta has a degree in physics from Università La Sapienza in Rome, where she started working at the Department of Cosmology on experiments on the measurement of anisotropy in the cosmic background radiation. Since 1991 she has been working at the European Space Agency, in Paris, and she is currently Chief Diversity Officer. 

During her career at ESA, she held several positions i.a. in international relations, elaboration of high level strategies, preparation of decisions at Member States’ ministerial meetings, network with think tanks. She supported the creation of the European Space Policy Institute in Vienna. She participated to the formulation of the first ESA Exploration programme, worked as coordinator of Science and Human Spaceflight activities and had the responsibility as Executive Secretary of the Science and Technology Advisory Group on Exploration in charge of selecting experiments for exploration missions, including ExoMars. She spent four years at the ESA Washington Office ensuring relations with NASA and US stakeholders, and was Member of the Board of Directors of Women in Aerospace USA. Currently she is member of the International Women’s Forum, of the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society Daring Circle, and of Women in Aerospace – Europe.

Scientific results

Ersilia Vaudo has a long experience in space programmes, in particular in science and explorations, European space strategy, relationships with NASA. In addition, she works to encourage the advancement of girls and women in STEM education and careers and to promote the values of diversity and inclusiveness.

She has given several TEDx Talks, including:

TEDX Bari, 2015: L’Universo e’ resiliente?

TEDX Roncade, 2015: La sfida della conoscenza

TEDX Matera, 2018: Donne, Spazio e Superpoteri

TEDX THBrandenburg: A journey through Space. Stretching the limits

Editorial work and publications

(2019) Piu' donne di scienza per vincere la sfida della competitività, Il Sole 24 Ore 

(2018) Simply into science, how to tear down the STEM gender, Worldcrunch.com 

(2018) La Scienza delle Donne, Wired

(2018) Why women in space are developing science ‘superpowers’, becoming smarter and shooting higher, Womenthology.co.uk

(2017) Lunar glow: what is driving the new space race to the Moon, Worldcrunch.com 

(2016) Space and its Links to Economic Theory and Public Support, in "Theorizing European Space Policy" (a cura di Thomas C. Hoerber e Emmanuel Sigalas), Washington DC: Rowman & Littlefield 

(2016) Il futuro del lavoro ai tempi del determinismo tecnologico, Il Menabo’ di Etica ed Economia 

(2015) The role of space in support of the common objectives of the European Nordic countries, 66th International Astronautical Congress, Jerusalem, Israel

(2014) Rosetta, the comet Hunter, Il Menabo’ di Etica ed Economia 

(2002) Assessing ESA’s Current Voting Rules and Practice and Potential Weighted Voting Systems in the Perspective of Enlargement, ESA Bulletin.

Awards and prizes

Ersilia Vaudo Scarpetta has received numerous prizes and awards.

In 1983, she received the "Enrico Persico" Fellowship from the Accademia dei Lincei

In 1986, the "Amelia Earhart" Fellowship for Distinguished Merit in Astrophysics Studies

In 2016, she won the "Cajeta Prize" in the category "Science and Scientific Research".

In 2019 she was nominated for the "European Diversity Awards" in the "Head of Diversity of the Year " category and included in StartupItalia's "Unstoppable Women" list, which recognises the commitment of women to innovation in Italy. In the same year she was invited to give the Lectio Magistralis for the Inauguration of the 157th Academic Year at the Politecnico di Milano.

In September 2021 she was named one of the 50 most inspiring Italian women in the world of technology with the InspiringFifty for Italy award.

Position/Role

Research Director, associate to Frascati National Laboratory of INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

Professional career

She graduated in Physics at the University La Sapienza of Rome in 1971, continuing her training at the Frascati National Laboratories of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), where she became a permanent researcher in 1975. During her experimental research in particle physics she also worked at CERN in Geneva and at the DESY laboratory in Hamburg. Since the end of the '80s she has devoted herself mainly to astro-particle physics conducting experiments at the INFN Laboratory of Gran Sasso, the largest and most important underground laboratory dedicated to astro-particle physics in the world in terms of number of experiments and complexity of technological and security infrastructures. In 2009 she became director of the Gran Sasso Laboratory, the first woman to hold this position, until 2012.

Scientific results

Lucia Votano carries out her basic research in the field of experimental physics of high-energy elementary particles and in the field of astro-particle physics, a field that links astrophysics, cosmology and the study of fundamental interactions of elementary particles. His main interests have for many years been in the study of neutrinos, an elementary particle of which there are three types with different "flavours". Along with photons, neutrinos are the most numerous particles in the universe of ordinary matter. They interact very little with ordinary matter and are therefore able to pass through large celestial bodies undisturbed, bringing us information from the far corners of the universe. With the international OPERA project at the Gran Sasso Laboratory, Lucia Votano and her team were able to measure directly for the first time in the world the oscillation (transformation) of muon-flavoured neutrinos into tau-type neutrinos. OPERA used the neutrino beam produced at CERN in Geneva and sent to the Gran Sasso laboratory on a journey 730 km long under the Earth's crust and about 2.4 milliseconds in duration. The oscillation showed that neutrinos have mass, albeit very small: a sign of new physics beyond the Standard Model of elementary particles and fundamental interactions. Since 2015 Lucia Votano has been working with other colleagues on the international JUNO (Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory) experiment, which will be set up in southern China by 2020. This is a gigantic underground detector of the latest generation for neutrinos, which will be used to further investigate their nature through the phenomenon of oscillation, which allows them to change from one type (of flavour) to another.

Editorial work and publications

The research activities have resulted in about 300 papers on international scientific journals and in presentations at international conferences. Among them:

(2018) M. Reguzzoni et al., GIGJ: a crustal gravity model of the Guangdong Province for predicting the geoneutrino signal at the JUNO experiment.
arXiv:1901.01945 [physics.geo-ph].

(2018) N. Agafonova et al. Final Results of the OPERA Experiment on ντ appearance in the CNGS Neutrino Beam. Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 211801.

(2018) N. Agafonova et al. Final results of the search for νμ→νe oscillations with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam. JHEP 1806, 151.

(2018) N. Agafonova et al. Measurement of the cosmic ray muon flux seasonal variation with the OPERA detector. arXiv:1810.10783 [hep-ex].

(2018) F. Riggi et al. Time and orientation long-distance correlations between extensive air showers detected by the MRPC telescopes of the EEE Project Nuovo Cim. C40, 6, 196.

(2018) M. Grassi et al. Charge reconstruction in large-area photomultipliers
JINST 13 (02): P02008.

(2018) A. Paoloni, A. Mengucci, M. Spinetti, M. Ventura, L. Votano. Streamer studies in Resistive Plate Chambers, arXiv:1806.03443 [physics.ins-det].

(2016) Agafonova A, Aleksandrov A, Votano L, et al. Determination of the muon charge sign with the dipolar spectrometers of the OPERA experiment. Journal of Instrumentation, 11, 07.

(2016) Berra A, Cecchini S, Cindolo F, Votano L, et al. Longitudinally segmented shashlik calorimeters with SiPM readout. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A Accelerators Spectrometers Detectors and Associated Equipment. 

(2016) Abbrescia M, Avanzini C, Baldini L, Votano L, et al. A study of upward going particles with the Extreme Energy Events telescopes Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A Accelerators Spectrometers Detectors and Associated Equipment, 816.

Lucia Votano has also published two scientific books for general public: Il fantasma dell’universo. Che cos’è il neutrino (Carocci, 2015) and La via della seta. La fisica da Enrico Fermi alla Cina (Di Renzo, 2017).

Awards and prizes

Lucia Votano was awarded the title of "Commendatore Ordine al Merito" by the Presidency of the Italian Republic in 2010.

She has also received numerous prizes and awards for scientific merit, including the "Guido Dorso" prize, the "Minerva, Roma Capitale delle Donne 2013" prize, the "L'Altra Italia" international prize, the "NordSud" international prize for exact and natural sciences, and the "Life Gates" prize.