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Nikolitsa (Lia) Merminga is a Greek-born accelerator physicist. In 2022, she was appointed director of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the first woman to hold the position.[1] She has worked at other national laboratories in Canada and the United States.

Education

Merminga grew up in Greece, where she attended all-girl middle and high schools. By the time she was sixteen years old, she knew she wanted to be a physicist, having been inspired by her family members, a high school physics teacher, and a biography of Marie Curie.[2][3][4] She received her undergraduate degree from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, where she studied physics, in 1983. She then moved to the United States to pursue a PhD in physics at the University of Michigan. There, she completed a Master’s of Science in Physics and a Master’s of Science in Mathematics and worked with doctoral advisors Lawrence W. Jones and Donald A. Edwards.[5][3][4] She completed her thesis, A Study of Nonlinear Dynamics in the Fermilab Tevatron,[6] using data from Fermilab's Tevatron particle accelerator[2] and completed her PhD in 1989.[5]

Career

After completing her PhD, Merminga held a postdoctoral position at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in the accelerator theory group.[5][3] In 1992, she joined Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility as a member of the Center for Advanced Studies of Accelerators (CASA). In 2002, she became director of CASA's beam physics group, her first managerial position.[5][3] In 2008, she joined Canada's TRIUMF laboratory as head of their accelerator program,[5][3] one of the most senior scientific positions in Canada.[7] There, she oversaw the design and construction of an accelerator that produced rare isotopes for use in medicine and nuclear physics.[3] She returned to SLAC in 2015, when she became that lab's Associate Director for Accelerators and a professor at Stanford University.[4] Around the same time, she took on another leadership role as a member of the U.S. Department of Energy's inaugural Energy Sciences Leadership Group from 2016 to 2017.[8] Merminga returned to Fermilab in 2018 as director of the lab's Proton Improvement Plan II (PIP-II) project,[2] the first particle accelerator project with major contributions by other countries to be hosted in the United States.[9]

On 5 April 2022, it was announced that Merminga had been appointed as the next director of Fermilab.[10]

Awards and honors

  • Elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), in 2006, after a nomination from the APS Division of Physics of Beams, "for leadership in designing and developing energy recovery linacs, and applications to light sources and electron-ion colliders"[11]
  • Minerva BC Women In™ Science Community Leadership and Excellence Award, 2013[12]
  • Member of the U.S. Department of Energy's inaugural Energy Sciences Leadership Group, 2016-2017[8]

References

  1. ^ "Q&A: Lia Merminga Has a Vision for Particle Physics". aps.org. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  2. ^ a b c Lawhun, Sarah (2018-07-24). "Accelerator excellence". symmetry magazine. Retrieved 2020-11-04.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Fessenden, Marissa (2012-06-01). "Career Q&A: Lia Merminga". Science | AAAS. Retrieved 2020-11-04.
  4. ^ a b c "Energy Sciences Leadership Group 2016-2017" (PDF). energy.gov. 2016-10-25. Retrieved 2020-11-06.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Lia Merminga". inspirehep.net. Retrieved 2020-11-04.
  6. ^ "A Study of Nonlinear Dynamics in the Fermilab Tevatron". inspirehep.net. Retrieved 2020-11-04.
  7. ^ "TRIUMF Laboratory Appoints Internationally Renowned Physicist to Top Canadian Scientific Post". Interactions. 2008-06-17. Retrieved 2020-11-05.
  8. ^ a b Cohen, Adam (2016-10-25). "Preparing Today's Leaders for Tomorrow's Scientific and Energy Challenges". Energy.gov. Retrieved 2020-11-06.
  9. ^ Johnston, Hamish (2020-09-23). "Fermilab looks to the future with PIP-II linac". Physics World. Retrieved 2020-11-05.
  10. ^ "Lia Merminga appointed director of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory". Fermilab News. 5 April 2022. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
  11. ^ "Fellows nominated in 2006 by the Division of Physics of Beams". APS Fellows archive. Retrieved 2021-09-05.
  12. ^ "Announcing the Honourees for Women In™ Science". minervabc.ca. 2013-11-12. Retrieved 2020-11-06.

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