• Sara Bolognesi

of the Institut de Recherche sur les lois Fondamentales de l’Univers – Institute of Research on the Fundamental laws of the Universe of the CEA (IRFU) – Commissariat aux Energies Atomiques et Alternatives (CEA), Saclay, France, “For her development of the data analysis techniques that conclusively improved the sensitivity of the CERN-CMS experiment, thus allowing the discovery of the Higgs boson and the first measurement of its spin and parity.”

Sara Bolognesi is a particle physicist known for directing several foremost programmes for physical research, and for making decisive proposals for experiments and instrumentation. Thus, Sara has been a key contributor to many different topics in CERN-CMS, including Higgs phenomenology, where she helped in developing and testing a new Monte Carlo generator (Phantom) to study Higgs production in Vector Boson Fusion and Vector Boson Scattering; the first LHC data, where she contributed to Electro-Weak physics analysis (Z,W+jets production), worked on jet reconstruction, Beta-physics and quarkonia; and the mapping of the 4 T magnetic field as well as the detector commissioning for the Drift Tube Barrel muon system. Most importantly though, Sara developed a Matrix Element analytical Likelihood Analysis (MELA) to best separate signal from background by optimizing the use of the information on production and decay angles of the Higgs. This method increased the performance of the analysis to the point where the Higgs-like resonance at 125 GeV could be observed at 3 sigma significance in the HZZ4ℓ channel in the summer of 2012. After that, the MELA method allowed the CMS collaboration to reach the 5 sigma significance necessary to claim a discovery, making the analysis of the HZZ4ℓ decay channel in CMS the most significant Higgs analysis at LHC0.

Sara Bolognesi's made a deeply insightful career move when, after the discovery of the Higgs boson, she changed from her activities at CMS to the Tokai to Kamioka (T2K) collaboration. Within the scope of the T2K collaboration, Sara has been instrumental in organising the community and coordinating the experiments that lead to the first detection of possible CP violation in leptons. Sara is also very much involved in teaching, and has had an impressive series of students; she is often invited to teach in schools. She currently holds a large number of responsibilities in IRFU as well as in many international committees and collaborations, where, beyond her decisive scientific input, she is also a foremost advocate for the cause of women in physics.

An interview from Sara Bolognesi by Kees van der Beek, chair of the EPS Equal Opportunities, will soon be released.

Sara Bolognesi acting on the valves of the gas system of the near detector (ND280) of T2K - image credit: Sara Bolognesi

More info about the EPS Emmy Noether Distinction

• EPS Emmy Noether Distinction awardees
  
• Call for the Winter 2021 edition