Lucia Votano takes the helm at Gran Sasso
Lucia Votano is to be the next director of the National Laboratory in Gran Sasso of Italy's National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN). The appointment was made by INFN's Board of Directors following the proposal of the Council. Votano will take office in September, when the second and last term of the current director, Eugenio Coccia, expires. This is the first time that a woman has been named as director of one of INFN's four large national laboratories.
Votano received her degree in physics from "La Sapienza" University in Rome in 1971 and in 1976 she began her career at the INFN laboratories in Frascati. She has collaborated on important research projects at CERN and at DESY. In 1988, she was promoted to senior researcher and became a research director in 2000. Votano is currently a member of the Peer Review Committee of the Astroparticle Physics European Co-ordination (ApPEC) and of the Roadmap Committee of the Astro Particle ERAnet (ASPERA), which last September produced a roadmap on the future of astroparticle research in Europe.
The laboratory under the Gran Sasso mountain is the world's largest underground laboratory for astroparticle physics. Research there includes the CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso project, in which neutrinos travel approximately 700 km from CERN for detection by the OPERA experiment, for which Votano was the co-ordinator, and in the near future by the Imaging Cosmic and Rare Underground Signal Experiment (ICARUS), developed by Carlo Rubbia.
Geneva awards Evans honorary degree
Lyn Evans, who led the project to build the LHC from its inception in 1994 until start-up on 10 September 2008, was made doctor honoris causa by the University of Geneva in a ceremony held on 5 June. It was one of four honorary degrees bestowed on people renowned for their activities in bringing nations together. The other recipients were Pascal Lamy, director-general of the WTO; Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and UN Commissioner on Human Rights from 1997–2002; and Desmond Tutu, archbishop-emeritus of Cape Town, renowned church leader and opponent of apartheid.
The ceremony was held in St Peter's Cathedral in Geneva and it was preceded by a procession in full academic regalia that included representatives from Europe's oldest universities. This year the University of Geneva is celebrating its 450th anniversary.
Erice announces new Weisskopf Scholarships
The United Nations has declared 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy, 400 years after Galileo Galilei first turned his telescope on the heavens. These celebrations have opened the way to a special grant awarded by the Italian government to the Subnuclear Physics School in Erice.
This school, the first in the field, was founded in 1963 at CERN by Patrick Blackett, Isidor Rabi and Victor Weisskopf, together with two fellows John Bell and Antonino Zichichi – in Weisskopf's office when he was director-general at CERN.
The special grant covers 50 fellowships named after Weisskopf, which will cover fees, full board and lodging for 50 new talents in the field of subnuclear physics. For details on how to apply for the Weisskopf Scholarships and information on the programme for the 2009 school, see www.ccsem.infn.it/ef/emfcsc2009/pdf/ISSP.pdf.
• The International School of Subnuclear Physics, Erice, takes place on 29 August to 7 September: www.ccsem.infn.it/issp/.