First female Director General for CERN

CERN have appointed Italian physicist Dr Fabiola Gianotti as their next Director General, the first female to fill the position. Gianotti was leader of the ATLAS equipment collaboration between March 2009 and February 2013, covering the period in which the LHC experiment – together with CMS – announced the discovery of the Higgs boson. “It is a great honour and responsibility for me to be selected as the next CERN Director-General following 15 outstanding predecessors,” said Gianotti, who is also an honorary professor at the University of Edinburgh. “CERN is a centre of scientific excellence, and a source of pride and inspiration for physicists from all over the world. CERN is also a cradle for technology and innovation, a fount of knowledge and education, and a shining, concrete example of worldwide scientific cooperation and peace. It is the combination of these four assets that renders CERN so unique, a place that makes better scientists and better people. I will fully engage myself to maintain CERN’s excellence in all its attributes, with the help of everybody, including CERN Council, staff and users from all over the world.” Gianotti’s appointment will be formalised at the December session of the CERN Council, and her mandate will begin on 1st Janaury 2016, running for five years. She will replace current Director General Rolf Heuer in December. “Fabiola Gianotti is an excellent choice to be my successor,” said Heuer. “It has been a pleasure to work with her for many years. I look forward to continuing to work with her through the transition year of 2015, and am confident that CERN will be in very good hands.” A UNESCO interview with Fabiola Gioanotti http://youtu.be/jcXCcB6_ioQ