# Florencia Canelli

Florencia Canelli is since 2021 the appointed Swiss scientific delegate to the CERN council, the supreme decision-making authority of the CERN Organization. From 2021-2024, she was appointed chair of the IUPAP division of particles and field (C11). From 2021-2023, she was co-coordinator of the physics program of the CMS collaboration, a CERN experiment with over 3000 physicists. In 2010, Canelli was awarded the IUPAP Young scientist prize, an international prize awarded to one experimental and one theoretical physicist per year, for "her pioneering contribution to the identification and precision measurements of rare phenomenon through the use of advanced analysis techniques to separate very small signals from large background processes at the Tevatron collider." She has been an author on four multi-purpose collider experiments, namely the CMS experiment and ATLAS experiment at the CERN LHC, and the CDF experiment and D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron. She is currently a full professor at the University of Zurich, Physics Institute, specializing in particle physics.

## Early life and education

Florencia Canelli was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1973. At a young age, her family moved to Asuncion, Paraguay, where she received much of her education. After receiving the equivalent of a physics bachelor degree at the Universidad Nacional de Asunción (Paraguay), she continued her education at the Instituto Balseiro in Bariloche, Argentina, before beginning her PhD studies in particle physics at the University of Rochester in the U.S. under the supervision of Tom Ferbel. Her PhD thesis, studying the properties of the top quark with data from the D0 experiment, introduced the so-called "matrix element" technique to improve measurements from collider detectors, and won several awards for this work, including the Mitsuyoshi Tanaka Dissertation Award, from APS.

## Career

After her PhD, she became a postdoc at UCLA on the CDF experiment at Fermilab from 2003-2006. During this time, she led efforts to estimate the energy scale of quarks produced in collisions, significantly contributing to the experiment’s results and improving the precision of numerous measurements.
In 2006, she accepted a prestigious Wilson Fellow at Fermilab. During her tenure as convener of the CDF top-quark group, the group made the first observation of the single production of top quarks.
In 2008, she became an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, and began her involvement on the ATLAS experiment at CERN, while continuing on the CDF experiment. She was awarded the Sloan Research Fellowship in 2009. In 2009, she was promoted to Scientist 1 at Fermilab, and in 2011, was promoted to associate professor at University of Chicago.
Canelli was part of the team at CDF that found evidence for the Higgs boson in 2012, as well as the ATLAS team that co-discovered the Higgs boson at the LHC on July 4th, 2012.
In 2012, Canelli moved to Switzerland, becoming associate professor at the University of Zurich, and later joining the CMS experiment. Her group has helped construct the CMS barrel pixel detector, installed in 2017, and studied a wide range of physics processes related to the Higgs boson, top quark, and beyond the Standard Model. She has co-led the CMS top quark group, and from 2021-2023 was the co-coordinator of the entire CMS physics program.
Canelli has been appointed to several high-level positions in international bodies, serving as chair of the Particles and fields commission (C11) of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics from 2021-2024, and as Swiss scientific delegate to the CERN council since 2021.

## Published works

Canelli has over 1700 publications, mainly on the CMS, ATLAS, CDF and D0 experiments.

## Personal life

Canelli is married to experimental particle physicist, Prof. Ben Kilminster. They have two children.

## Recognition

* 2010: IUPAP Young Scientist Prize
* 2009: Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship
* 2006: Wilson Fellowship
* 2005: Mitsuyoshi Tanaka Dissertation Award, APS
* 2004: University Research Association Thesis Award, Fermilab
* 2004: Frederick Lobkowicz Thesis Prize, University of Rochester

## Leadership in international organizations

* since 2022: Swiss scientific delegate to CERN Council, Vice-President of the Council as of 2025
* 2021-2024: Chair of the commission Particles and Fields (C11) of IUPAP
* 2017-2020: Member of Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee (PAC)
* 2017-2021: Secretary of the commission Particles and Fields (C11) of IUPAP
* 2014-2017: Regular member of the commission Particles and Fields (C11) of IUPAP
* 2013-2021: Swiss representative to the CMS management board
* 2016-2019: Swiss representative to the Cherenkov Telescope Array Council

## Leadership in experimental collaborations

* 2021-2023: Physics co-coordinator for the CMS experiment
* 2018-2020: Convener of the CMS top-quark group
* 2015-2016: Convener of the CMS "Very Heavy Fermions" (VFS) group
* 2007-2009: Convener of the CDF top-quark group
* 2005-2007: Convener of the CDF top-quark mass group
* 2003-2004: Convener of the CDF jet-energy and resolution group

## References/Notes and references

* ↑ SERI, State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation. "CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, Geneva". www.sbfi.admin.ch. Retrieved 2024-09-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
* ↑ Tschui, Silvia (12 June 2022). ""Wissenschaft ist keine Glaubenssache"". Blick. pp. 1–5. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
* 1 2 C11, C11 (2021-03-05). "C11: Members 2021-2024 - IUPAP: The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics". Retrieved 2024-09-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
* ↑ https://cms-docdb.cern.ch/cgi-bin/PublicDocDB/RetrieveFile?docid=3798
* ↑ "IUPAP Awards Young Scientist Prize in Particle Physics". Interactions. 2010-07-11. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
* ↑ "ORCID". orcid.org. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
* ↑ "UZH Magazin 1/22 by University of Zurich - Issuu". issuu.com. 2022-03-17. pp. 48–51. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
* ↑ Valich, Lindsey (2022-03-24). "Thomas Ferbel remembered as inspiring mentor and distinguished particle physicist". News Center. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
* ↑ "IUPAP Awards Young Scientist Prize in Particle Physics". Interactions. 2010-07-11. Retrieved 2024-09-16.
* ↑ Bhatti, A.; Canelli, F.; Heinemann, B.; Adelman, J.; Ambrose, D.; Arguin, J. -F.; Barbaro-Galtieri, A.; Budd, H.; Chung, Y. S.; Chung, K.; Cooper, B.; Currat, C.; D’Onofrio, M.; Dorigo, T.; Erbacher, R. (2006-10-15). "Determination of the jet energy scale at the Collider Detector at Fermilab". Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment. 566 (2): 375–412. arXiv:hep-ex/0510047. Bibcode:2006NIMPA.566..375B. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2006.05.269. ISSN 0168-9002.
* ↑ "Fermilab | For Physicists & Engineers | Fellowships". www.fnal.gov. Retrieved 2024-09-16.
* ↑ CDF Collaboration; Aaltonen, T.; Adelman, J.; Akimoto, T.; Álvarez González, B.; Amerio, S.; Amidei, D.; Anastassov, A.; Annovi, A.; Antos, J.; Apollinari, G.; Apresyan, A.; Arisawa, T.; Artikov, A.; Ashmanskas, W. (2009-08-24). "Observation of Electroweak Single Top-Quark Production". Physical Review Letters. 103 (9): 092002. arXiv:0903.0885. Bibcode:2009PhRvL.103i2002A. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.092002. hdl:10902/2061. PMID 19792788.
* ↑ "Fellows Database | Alfred P. Sloan Foundation". sloan.org. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
* ↑ "Highlights from CMS - Dr. Florencia Canelli - Conference on High Energy Physics (EPS-HEP) 2023 - Events - DESY video - livestreaming and video recordings". video.desy.de. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
* ↑ Castelvecchi, Davide; Gibney, Elizabeth (2022-04-07). "Particle's surprise mass threatens to upend the standard model". Nature. 604 (7905): 225–226. Bibcode:2022Natur.604..225C. doi:10.1038/d41586-022-01014-5. PMID 35393589.
* ↑ Gibney, Elizabeth (2022-05-25). "How the revamped Large Hadron Collider will hunt for new physics". Nature. 605 (7911): 604–607. Bibcode:2022Natur.605..604G. doi:10.1038/d41586-022-01388-6. PMID 35614240.
* ↑ C11, C11 (2021-03-19). "C11: Particles and Fields - IUPAP: The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics". Retrieved 2024-09-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
* ↑ "C11: Awards | IUPAP: The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics". archive2.iupap.org. Retrieved 2025-01-24.
* ↑ "Five on University faculty at frontiers of their fields are named Sloan fellows". chronicle.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2025-01-24.
* ↑ "Council - Composition as from January 2022 | CERN Council". web.archive.org. 2022-09-27. Retrieved 2025-01-24.
* ↑ "Council - Composition as from January 2025 | CERN Council". council.web.cern.ch. Retrieved 2025-01-24.
* ↑ C11, C11 (2021-03-05). "C11: Members 2021-2024 - IUPAP: The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics". Retrieved 2025-01-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
* ↑ "Members | Physics Advisory Committee". web.archive.org. 2017-12-24. Retrieved 2025-01-24.
* ↑ iupap (2021-12-01). "C11 : Members 2017-2021 - IUPAP: The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics". Retrieved 2025-01-24.
* ↑ "C11: Members (2014-2017) | IUPAP: The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics". archive2.iupap.org. Retrieved 2025-01-24.
* ↑ "Organisation | CMS Experiment". web.archive.org. 2017-05-12. Retrieved 2025-01-24.