Teresa Rodrigo

Teresa Rodrigo Anoro (1956 – 21 April 2020) was a Spanish scientist who worked in particle physics. She worked at CERN, Fermilab and the Instituto de Física de Cantabria [es] and was professor at the University of Cantabria. Whilst at CERN, Rodrigo worked on the Compact Muon Solenoid and research for the Higgs boson.

Career

In 1994, Rodrigo became a professor of atomic physics at the University of Cantabria.^[1] Rodrigo also worked at the Instituto de Física de Cantabria [es] (IFCA) and Fermilab in the US.^[2] She worked on the Collider Detector at Fermilab experiment that discovered the top quark in 1995.^[1][3][4][5]

Rodrigo worked on Higgs boson research, and collaborated with CERN.^[2][6] She was the first Spanish female scientist to work at CERN,^[2] and worked on the UA1 experiment,^[7][8] and from 1994, she worked on the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN.^[2][9][10] She managed a team of 30 IFCA employees on the CMS project,^[1] and managed one of the teams that worked on proving the existence of the Higgs boson.^[3][11][12] In 2010, she became president of CERN's International Collaboration Council,^[1] making her the first Spanish physicist to be part of the International Collaboration Council.^[3]

From 2016 to 2019, Rodrigo was a director of IFCA.^[2] She was the sixth director of IFCA, and the first female director.^[13] Rodrigo also collaborated on the European Strategy for Particle Physics.^[14]

Awards

In 2014, Rodrigo was named one of the 100 most influential women in Spain by website Mujeresycia.com.^[15] 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.^[16]

Personal life

Rodrigo was born in Lleida, Spain.^[2] She studied at the University of Zaragoza, and earned a PhD from La Junta de Energía Nuclear (now CIEMAT).^[7][14]

Rodrigo died on 21 April 2020 in Santander, Spain.^[2]

References