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STFC and the UK particle physics community welcomed the announcement yesterday from CERN Council that its next Director-General from 2016 will be Dr Fabiola Gianotti, the former Spokesperson and co-ordinator for the ATLAS experiment at CERN. Dr Gianotti is a leading physicist who has made her mark in the world of science, leading the ATLAS collaboration through the discovery of the Higgs Boson in 2012 and 20 years of experience at CERN.

Universities, Science and Cities Minister Greg Clark said;

“I congratulate Dr Fabiola Gianotti on this crucial appointment. Dr Gianotti’s excellent scientific credentials and experience in leading the ATLAS collaboration through the discovery of Higgs Boson in 2012 make her a strong choice for this position. I’d like to pay tribute to Dr Gianotti’s predecessor Professor Rolf Heuer who has been DG since 2009 and has led CERN as the interest in its work has grown.

I look forward to continuing the UK’s work and support for CERN under Dr Gianotti’s leadership, where UK scientists continue to play a key role in making exciting new discoveries at the Large Hadron Collider and other notable experiments.”

In addition to her excellent scientific credentials and experience with the management of complex experiments, Dr Gianotti will be the first female Director-General in CERN’s 60 year history.

The United Kingdom looks forward to continuing its strong support for and role at CERN under Dr Gianotti’s leadership, with work continuing to discover new science at the Large Hadron Collider and other experiments in which UK scientists play key roles.

The UK put forward strong candidates for the role of Director-General, but we are pleased a quick decision has been made by CERN Council to ensure a smooth transition.

We congratulate the out-going Director-General Professor Rolf Heuer, who has been DG since 2009. Under his leadership, CERN and the Large Hadron Collider have delivered exciting science milestones such as the discovery of the Higgs Boson and the creation of anti-hydrogen.

See the CERN website for the full release.

Corinne Mosese
STFC media office
01793 979724
Corinne.Mosese@stfc.ac.uk

Fabiola Gianotti: Brief Curriculum Vitae

Fabiola Gianotti received a Ph.D. in experimental particle physics from the University of Milano in 1989. Since 1994 she has been a research physicist in the Physics Department of CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, and since August 2013 an honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh. She is also a member of the Italian Academy of Sciences (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei).

Dr Gianotti has worked on several CERN experiments, being involved in detector R&D and construction, software development and data analysis.

From March 2009 to February 2013 she held the elected position of project leader (”Spokesperson”) of the ATLAS experiment. The ATLAS Collaboration consists of 3000 physicists from 38 countries. On 4 July 2012 she presented the ATLAS results on the search for the Higgs boson in an historic seminar at CERN. This event marked the announcement of the discovery of the Higgs boson by the ATLAS and CMS experiments.

Dr Gianotti is the author or co-author of more than 500 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals. She has given more than 30 invited plenary talks at the major international conferences in the field.

She was/is a member of several international committees, such as the Scientific Council of the CNRS (France), the Physics Advisory Committee of the Fermilab Laboratory (USA), the Council of the European Physical Society, the Scientifc Council of the DESY Laboratory (Germany), the Scientific Advisory Committee of NIKHEF (Netherlands). She is a member of the recently set-up Scientific Advisory Board of the UN Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon.

She received honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Uppsala, the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, McGill University (Montreal) and Oslo University.

Dr Gianotti was awarded the honour of “Grande Ufficiale 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).

She was included among the “Top 100 most inspirational women” by The Guardian newspaper (UK, 2011), ranked 5th in Time magazine’s Personality of the Year (USA, 2012), included among the “Top 100 most influential women” by Forbes magazine (USA, 2013) and considered among the “Leading Global Thinkers of 2013” by Foreign Policy magazine (USA, 2013).

In 2016, she will become the first female Director-General of CERN.