MEET OUR SPEAKERS
 
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Prof. Fabiola Gianotti
Director-General, CERN
Fabiola Gianotti received a PhD in experimental particle physics from the University of Milan in 1989. Since 1994 she has been a research physicist in the Physics Department of CERN and since August 2013 an honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh. She is also a corresponding member of the Italian Academy of Sciences (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei) and foreign associate member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. Dr Gianotti has worked on several CERN experiments, and been involved in detector R&D, construction, software development and data analysis.
Dr Gianotti has worked on several CERN experiments, and been involved in detector R&D, construction, software development and data analysis. From 2009 to 2013, she held the elected position of project leader (spokesperson) for the ATLAS experiment, and had the task of presenting the results on the search for the Higgs boson in a seminar at CERN on 4 July 2012. Gianotti has authored, or co-authored over 500 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and given more than 30 invited plenary talks at major international conferences in her field.
She also holds or has held membership of several international committees, including the Scientific Council of the CNRS (France), the Physics Advisory Committee of the Fermilab Laboratory (USA) the Scientific Council of the DESY Laboratory (Germany) and the Scientific Advisory Committee of NIKHEF (Netherlands). She is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the UN Secretary-General.
Prof Gianotti was awarded the honour of “Cavaliere di Gran Croce dell’ordine al merito della Repubblica” by the Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. She received the Special Fundamental Physics Prize of the Milner Foundation (2012), the Enrico Fermi Prize of the Italian Physical Society (2013) and the Medal of Honour of the Niels Bohr Institute of Copenhagen (2013).
Director-General, CERN
Fabiola Gianotti received a PhD in experimental particle physics from the University of Milan in 1989. Since 1994 she has been a research physicist in the Physics Department of CERN and since August 2013 an honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh. She is also a corresponding member of the Italian Academy of Sciences (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei) and foreign associate member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. Dr Gianotti has worked on several CERN experiments, and been involved in detector R&D, construction, software development and data analysis.
Dr Gianotti has worked on several CERN experiments, and been involved in detector R&D, construction, software development and data analysis. From 2009 to 2013, she held the elected position of project leader (spokesperson) for the ATLAS experiment, and had the task of presenting the results on the search for the Higgs boson in a seminar at CERN on 4 July 2012. Gianotti has authored, or co-authored over 500 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and given more than 30 invited plenary talks at major international conferences in her field.
She also holds or has held membership of several international committees, including the Scientific Council of the CNRS (France), the Physics Advisory Committee of the Fermilab Laboratory (USA) the Scientific Council of the DESY Laboratory (Germany) and the Scientific Advisory Committee of NIKHEF (Netherlands). She is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the UN Secretary-General.
Prof Gianotti was awarded the honour of “Cavaliere di Gran Croce dell’ordine al merito della Repubblica” by the Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. She received the Special Fundamental Physics Prize of the Milner Foundation (2012), the Enrico Fermi Prize of the Italian Physical Society (2013) and the Medal of Honour of the Niels Bohr Institute of Copenhagen (2013).
 
Local Plenary Speakers
Dr. Ruth Jones
Branch Chief for Industrial Safety Branch at NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center Dr. Jones is an alumnus of Alabama A & M University where she received her Doctorate of Philosophy and Masters of Science degrees in Physics/Materials Science. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from the University of Arkansas in Pine Bluff. Dr. Jones is the second African American woman to receive a Ph. D. in Physics in the state of Alabama, and the first woman to receive a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from the prestigious University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Dr. Jones, the author of numerous articles on optical physics, is a member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), System Safety Society, American Physical Society, SPIE and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. Dr. Jones has received awards and has been recognized as one of the six Women Succeeding in Male-Dominated Fields (Daily Worth’s, October 13, 2014). She is lauded as one of NASA’s Modern Figures. Update: Due to the 2018-2019 NASA Shutdown, Dr. Jones is unable to attend CUWiP. |
Prof. Marta Dark McNeese
Associate Professor of Physics at Spelman College. She attended the University of Virginia, where she received a BS in Physics. She received her Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working in Laser Biomedical Research Center. She completed a postdoctoral appointment at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. Her research interests are in laser interactions with biological tissues and electro-optical effects in biomolecules. She has advised more than 30 undergraduate research students in experimental and computational biophysics research. She is a member of the American Physical Society and the American Association of Physics Teachers. She has also co-chaired the Chemical and Biological Physics section of the National Society of Black Physicists. She has a passion for educational outreach, having volunteered for AAAS STEM Talks and sharing the physics of light, color and sound with local Atlanta elementary school students. Update: Due to last minute complications, Dr McNeese is unable to attend CUWiP. |
Prof. Laura Cadonati
Deputy Spokesperson LIGO Associate Professor Laura Cadonati is a Professor with the School of Physics and the Center for Relativistic Astrophysics at at Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research interests include gravitational waves and particle astrophysics, with focus on the detection, characterization and astrophysical interpretation of short-duration gravitational wave signals that are produced by cataclysmic astrophysical events such as the collisions of black holes or core collapse supernovae. She is a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration since 2002, and a past member of the Borexino solar neutrino experiment at Gran Sasso. Dr. Cadonati is deputy spokesperson for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and past chair of the LIGO Data Analysis Council. She received her undergraduate degree in Italy, with a Laurea in Physics at the University of Milano, and a Ph.D. in Physics from Princeton University. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, has chaired in the Division of Gravity of the American Physical Society, and was awarded an NSF Career Award. |
Rebecca Thompson
Head of Public Outreach American Physical Society Dr. Rebecca Thompson is a Head of Public Outreach for the American Physical Society. In this role she designs fun presentations, writes comic books, and creates activities for a variety of audiences to get them interested in physics. She joined the PhysicsCentral team in 2008. When she is not making small explosions on her desk in the name of physics outreach she attempts to finish triathlons and bakes really tasty brownies. She has yet to set anything on fire that she didn’t mean to. |
Neha Pachauri
Development Engineer Intel Dr. Pachauri received her Ph.D. in Physics in 2014 from the University of Alabama. She worked on fabrication and study of epitaxial spinel ferrite films with low microwave loss using Chemical Vapor Deposition. She is currently working as a Senior Technology Development and Integration yield Engineer in Intel Corporation, Oregon. She works in the dielectric thin films group on chemical vapor deposition process development for semiconductor fabrication. Her role involves defining roadmaps, conducting experiments to develop and drive process improvements on material & equipment configuration for new technology process, and develop strategies to resolve problems in high volume manufacturing. |