To Fabiola Gianotti, the Ph.D. in Physics H. C.

On Friday, June 22, at 3 p.m., at the "Carlo Ciliberto" Hall of the Monte Sant'Angelo University Complex, the Rector of the University of Naples Federico II, Prof. Gaetano Manfredi, will confer the title of Doctor of Physics Honoris Causa to CERN Geneva director Dr. Fabiola Gianotti, who has distinguished herself for her research and skills in leading large international collaborations in elementary particle physics experiments.

Among Giannotti's greatest achievements, she boasts, as head of the ATLAS Collaboration, the discovery of the Higgs boson, announced on July 4, 2012, in joint session with the other major Collaboration, CMS, and achieved by studying collisions between protons at very high energy at what is the most powerful particle accelerator in the world, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). For that discovery, theoretical physicists Peter Higgs and François Englert, who predicted its existence and properties within the Standard Model of particles, received the Nobel Prize in 2013. Special mention for this achievement was given to the ATLAS International Collaborations and CMS.

The distinguished scientist, Roman by birth, completed her undergraduate studies in Milan, Italy, where she earned her doctorate in 1989 with a thesis on subnuclear physics results obtained in the UA2 experiment at the proton-antiproton collider at CERN. Also at the same International Laboratory, she continued her research in the field of electron-positron collisions in the ALEPH experiment at the LEP collider and later in the ATLAS experiment at the LHC where she directed about 3,000 physicists from 40 countries.

Since January 1, 2016, Fabiola Gianotti has been director of CERN, by election of the General Council, with a term of office ending on December 31, 2020, and she leads the particle physics research of more than 10,000 scientists, from all over the world, in an atmosphere of collaboration that knows no barriers, whether political, ideological, religious or of any other nature. Of these, about one-tenth are Italian researchers.

Fabiola Gianotti has received numerous awards worldwide: she was awarded the honor of "Cavaliere di Gran Croce dell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica" by the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano; she received the Special Prize in Fundamental Physics from the Milner Foundation (2012), the Enrico Fermi Prize from the Italian Physical Society (2013), the Medal of Honor from the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen (2013), and the Wilhelm Exner Medal from Vienna (2017). She has been awarded numerous Honoris Causa Doctorates in Europe, the USA, and Canada. In 2012 she appeared fifth among the most important personalities of the year in the prestigious "Time Magazine" and in 2013 among the 100 most influential women in the world in "Forbes" magazine. She is an honorary professor at the University of Edinburgh, a member of the Academy of the Lincei and prestigious academies of science in the US, France, and Britain (Royal Society).

At the 'Ettore Pancini' Department of Physics and the Naples Section of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics, two research groups participating in the ATLAS and CMS experiments are active, often with significant roles at the international level, for a total of about 40 physicists, half of whom are young researchers-in-training (research fellows, PhD students). In particular, the Neapolitan members of ATLAS collaborated closely with Fabiola Gianotti during the period when she was "Spokeperson" of the experiment (from 2009 to 2013). This comes in the wake of a tradition in which Neapolitan physicists have been involved at CERN for more than 50 years. Therefore, the proposal of the Department of Physics to award a PhD to Fabiola Gianotti has been enthusiastically welcomed by the Academic Organs of the University of Frederick and is a source of pride for the Neapolitan scientific community, as well as a well-deserved recognition for the distinguished scholar.

The ceremony will be attended by the academic authorities: the Rector Magnifico Prof. Gaetano Manfredi, the President of the Polytechnic School and Basic Sciences Prof. Piero Salatino, the Coordinator of the Doctoral Program in Physics Prof. Salvatore Capozziello, the Director of the Department of Physics "Ettore Pancini" Prof. Leonardo Merola, who will also pronounce the "laudatio academica" of the awardee. This will be followed by Fabiola Gianotti's "Lectio magistralis," which will also constitute the 6th lecture in the "Antonio Barone Lectures" series that are coordinated by Prof. Giuseppe Longo. The lectures are named after Antonio Barone and were established by the Department of Physics to honor the memory of the Neapolitan scientist, former professor emeritus of the University of Naples Federico II, who passed away in 2011 and was an undisputed world leader in superconductivity research.

Participation in the June 22 ceremony is open to the public.