Teresa Rodrigo Anoro (195621 April 2020) was a Spanish scientist who worked in

particle physics Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) an ...

. She worked 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 ...

Fermilab Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located just outside Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics. Since 2007, Fermilab has been operat ...

and the and was professor at the

University of Cantabria University of Cantabria (UC) ( es, Universidad de Cantabria), is a public university located in Santander, Torrelavega and Comillas in Cantabria, Spain. It was founded in 1972 and is organized in 15 schools and colleges. It was selected as ...

. Whilst at CERN, Rodrigo worked on the

Compact Muon Solenoid The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment is one of two large general-purpose particle physics detectors built on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland and France. The goal of the CMS experiment is to investigate a wide range ...

and research for 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 ...

Career

In 1994, Rodrigo became a professor of

atomic physics Atomic physics is the field of physics that studies atoms as an isolated system of electrons and an atomic nucleus. Atomic physics typically refers to the study of atomic structure and the interaction between atoms. It is primarily concerned wit ...

at the

. Rodrigo also worked at the (IFCA) and

in the US. She worked on the

Collider Detector at Fermilab The Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) experimental collaboration studies high energy particle collisions from the Tevatron, the world's former highest-energy particle accelerator. The goal is to discover the identity and properties of the partic ...

experiment that discovered the

top quark The top quark, sometimes also referred to as the truth quark, (symbol: t) is the most massive of all observed elementary particles. It derives its mass from its coupling to the Higgs Boson. This coupling y_ is very close to unity; in the Standard ...

in 1995. Rodrigo worked on

research, and collaborated with

. She was the first Spanish female scientist to work at CERN, and worked on the

UA1 experiment The UA1 experiment (an abbreviation of Underground Area 1) was a high-energy physics experiment that ran at CERN's Proton-Antiproton Collider (SpS), a modification of the one-beam Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). The data was recorded between ...

, and from 1994, she worked on the

(CMS) at the

Large Hadron Collider The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle collider. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008 in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and hundred ...

in CERN. She managed a team of 30 IFCA employees on the CMS project, and managed one of the teams that worked on proving the existence of the Higgs boson. In 2010, she became president of CERN's International Collaboration Council, making her the first Spanish physicist to be part of the International Collaboration Council. From 2016 to 2019, Rodrigo was a director of IFCA. She was the sixth director of IFCA, and the first female director. Rodrigo also collaborated on the European Strategy for Particle Physics.

Awards

In 2014, Rodrigo was named one of the 100 most influential women in Spain by website Mujeresycia.com. In 2016, Rodrigo received the ''Julio Peláez Prize for Pioneers of Physical, Chemical and Mathematical Sciences'' for her work on the discovery of the Higgs boson.

Personal life

Rodrigo was born in

Lleida Lleida (, ; Spanish: Lérida ) is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital city of the province of Lleida. Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression. It is also the capital city of the Segrià comarca, as ...

, Spain. She studied at the

University of Zaragoza The University of Zaragoza, sometimes referred to as Saragossa University () is a public university with teaching campuses and research centres spread over the three provinces of Aragon, Spain. Founded in 1542, it is one of the oldest universiti ...

, and earned a PhD from '' La Junta de Energía Nuclear'' (now CIEMAT). Rodrigo died on 21 April 2020 in

Santander, Spain Santander () is the capital of the autonomous community and historical region of Cantabria situated on the north coast of Spain. It is a port city located east of Gijón and west of Bilbao with a population of 172,000 (2017). It is believed to ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodrigo, Teresa 1956 births 2020 deaths People associated with CERN People from Lleida Spanish women physicists University of Zaragoza alumni 20th-century Spanish women scientists 20th-century Spanish physicists 21st-century Spanish women scientists 21st-century Spanish physicists Academic staff of the University of Cantabria Physicists from Catalonia