Rajaâ Cherkaoui El Moursli (born 12 May 1954) is a Moroccan Professor of

nuclear physics Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...

, at the faculty of science within th
Mohammad V University of Rabat.
She won the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science for her work on the

Higgs Boson The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the fields in particle physics theory. In the Stand ...

Life

El Moursli was born in

Salé Salé ( ar, سلا, salā, ; ber, ⵙⵍⴰ, sla) is a city in northwestern Morocco, on the right bank of the Bou Regreg river, opposite the national capital Rabat, for which it serves as a commuter town. Founded in about 1030 by the Banu Ifran ...

in 1954. She obtained her first degree in mathematics at Lycée Descartes in

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populati ...

. She had to argue the case then with her father to be a girl who would leave conservative Morocco to study further. She says that

Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. ...

's achievements and a high school teacher inspired her. She then went to study in Grenoble in France where she obtained her doctorate in physics at the ''Laboratoire de Physique subatomique et cosmologie'' which was part of the

Joseph Fourier University Joseph Fourier University (UJF, french: Université Joseph Fourier, also known as Grenoble I) was a French university situated in the city of Grenoble and focused on the fields of sciences, technologies and health. It is now part of the Universit ...

. In 1982 she returned to Rabat.Biography R. Cherkaoui
, Mohammed V University, Rabat, retrieved 4 April 2015 Then she leads a research team for the ATLAS experiment at

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...

. In 2015 she was awarded the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science for Africa and the Arab states. The award cited her contribution to the proof of the existence of the

. This particle is responsible for the creation of

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

. El Moursli raised the level of Moroccan scientific research and healthcare. The latter was acknowledged because she set up the first

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

medical physics Medical physics deals with the application of the concepts and methods of physics to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human diseases with a specific goal of improving human health and well-being. Since 2008, medical physics has been incl ...

.2015 L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards
Arnold Nou, 2 April 2015, WomenOfChina.cn, retrieved 4 April 2015 Dave Charlton, ATLAS spokesperson congratulated her for her award and said "ATLAS congratulates Professor Rajaâ Cherkaoui El Moursli for this prestigious award, and the recognition of her part in the discovery of the

Higgs boson The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the fields in particle physics theory. In the Stand ...

"http://home.cern/about/updates/2015/03/atlas-physicist-wins-loreal-unesco-women-science-award, ATLAS physicist wins L'Oreal-UNESCO Women in Science award

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moursli, Rajaa Cherkaoui 1954 births Living people People from Salé Moroccan physicists Moroccan women physicists People associated with CERN Physics educators L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science laureates Moroccan women scientists Fellows of the African Academy of Sciences