In recognition of her influential contributions to human knowledge and understanding of the universe through her experimental research in particle physics; of her inspiring leadership of CERN, which has shaped discovery, science policy, and education, in Europe and beyond; and of her determined and energetic advocacy for science as a bridge between people – individuals and nations.
Dr. Fabiola Gianotti is a renowned particle physicist, who currently serves as the Director-General of CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research). Championing the role of science as a universal and unifying force in connecting people and creating a shared future in a fractured world, she is a remarkable role model for men and women across the world, scientists and nonscientists alike.
Dr. Gianotti earned a PhD in experimental particle physics from the University of Milan (1989). Since 1994, she has been a research physicist in CERN’s Physics Department, working on experiments including ALEPH on the Large Electron-Positron Collider, which was the precursor to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), and ATLAS at the LHC. In the course of her career she had the opportunity to closely collaborate with many scientists from the Weizmann Institute and other institutions and universities across Israel.
he has made considerable contributions to the design, construction, and operation of the ATLAS experiment, a collaboration of almost 3,000 physicists from some 180 institutions, 38 countries, and five continents (including the Weizmann Institute, whose scientists are among the leaders of the international consortium responsible for the Muon Spectrometer—one of the five subsystems that make up ATLAS). In 2009, Dr. Gianotti was elected as the project leader of the ATLAS collaboration. On July 4, 2012, she represented the ATLAS collaboration in the announcement of the discovery of the Higgs boson, which had been proposed as a part of the Standard Model of particle physics to explain how certain fundamental particles acquire mass. Her deep understanding of many aspects of ATLAS, in addition to her inspiring leadership, are recognized as major factors in cementing the historic discovery so quickly. In 2016, Dr. Gianotti became the first woman to serve as CERN’s Director-General.
Beyond CERN, Dr. Gianotti has, over the years, participated on major international committees, including the Scientific Board of the National Center for Scientific Research (France), the Physics Advisory Committee of the Dutch National Institute for Subatomic Physics Fermilab, the Scientific Council of the DESY Laboratory (Germany), the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Dutch National Institute for Subatomic Physics (Netherlands), and the Scientific Advisory Board of the UN Secretary General.
She holds multiple honorary degrees from leading institutions around the world and is a corresponding member of the Italian Academy of Science (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei) and a foreign associate member of both the National Academy of Sciences of the United States and of the French Academy of Sciences. Her honors and awards include the First Class Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2014), the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2012), the Enrico Fermi Prize of the Italian Physical Society (2013), and the Medal of Honour of the Niels Bohr Institute of Copenhagen (2013).
Dr. Gianotti was one of The Guardian’s top 100 most inspirational women in 2011, ranked fifth in Time's Person of the Year index in 2012, and included among the world’s 100 most powerful women by Forbes magazine in both 2013 and 2017 (on both occasions she was the highestranking physicist).