Professor Cristina Lazzeroni

Professor Cristina Lazzeroni

School of Physics and Astronomy
Professor in Particle Physics

Contact details

Address
School of Physics and Astronomy
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Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Cristina Lazzeroni is a Professor in Particle Physics, having previously been a Royal Society University Fellow in Physics. Cristina has published over 100 papers in international scientific journals. She is co-PI in the Particle Physics Rolling Grant and she has received a major grant from the European Union. She is an enthusiastic communicator and frequently visits local schools as part of her interest in enhancing public engagement, interest, understanding and awareness of physics through outreach.

Qualifications

  • Professor in Particle Physics
  • Royal Society University Fellow in Particle Physics 
  • PhD in Physics, University of Pisa, Italy, 1996
  • Degree in Physics, University of Pisa, Italy, 1992

Biography

Cristina Lazzeroni is an experimental particle physicist who makes key contributions to intricate studies of kaon physics.  Results include precise measurements of matter-antimatter asymmetry in kaon decays, and first observation of the ultra-rare decay of a charged kaon to a pion and two neutrinos.  These results test the Standard Model of particle physics, and constrain new physical interactions at high energy.

Cristina's research in kaon physics has been in experiments at CERN, first NA48 and then NA62.  She's had lead roles in both, including a period of four years as NA62 Spokesperson, coordinating around 300 researchers, from 30 institutes, in 15 countries.  While working on the NA48 experiment, Cristina was appointed a Royal Society University Research Fellow.

Cristina also leads initiatives to make contemporary particle physics accessible to a broad public.  She organises interactive exhibits at science festivals, gives talks to diverse audiences, and is involved in international projects for schools.  For contributions to public engagement, Cristina was awarded the Lise Meitner Medal of the Institute of Physics.

Teaching

  • Y1 tutorials
  • Y4 course Current Topics in Particle Physics
  • MPAGS course on Introduction to Particle Physics
  • Y4 projects on NA62 experiment

Postgraduate supervision

Postgraduate supervisor of Particle Physics students.

Research

Research themes

  • Particle Physics 
  • Flavour Physics
  • Rare Decays
  • Kaon physics

Dr Lazzeroni has been a member of the ALICE experiment at CERN from 2007 to 2011. She is currently a member of the LHCb CERN experiment. She is also the NA62 UK spokesperson and the project leader for the CEDAR detector in NA62 (also at CERN).

Other activities

  • Royal Society Grant Panel for International Joint Projects
  • Royal Society “State of the nation report n4”, examining the school-to-University transition for students of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects
  • IPPP Steering Commitee 
  • Outreach activities include an exhibit at the British Science Festival in 2010; an exhibit at the Royal Society Science Exhibition in 2011 and at Big Bang Fair 2012.

Publications

A selection of Dr Lazzeroni's publications can be found

on the INSPIRE website.