NEWPORT NEWS. - Patrizia Rossi, a well-respected physicist from Italy with extensive experience in experimental physics, has been named deputy associate director for nuclear physics at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, concluding a months-long international search.
Rossi, a senior staff scientist at Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati of Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (LNF-INFN), will begin her duties at Jefferson Lab in May.
"Patrizia is an outstanding scientist and a valuable addition to the lab," said Jefferson Lab Director Hugh Montgomery. "She brings experience as a manager and extensive knowledge of Jefferson Lab, which will greatly benefit our research efforts as we prepare for the future and the start of our 12 GeV experimental program."
Since 2003, Rossi has served as co-spokesperson and LNF coordinator of the Italian participation at Jefferson Lab. The Italian collaboration is fully involved in the 12 GeV program, which will begin in 2015. Rossi also has served as chair of the service work committee in Jefferson Lab's experimental Hall B since 2004 and has been a member of the Hall B technical and ad hoc committees since 2002. In March 2010, she also served as a member of the lab's Program Advisory Committee, a panel of leading scientists that selects experiments to be run at the lab.
Rossi received a degree in physics from the University of Rome in 1986. In 1988, she received a fellowship from INFN to conduct research and then joined the Frascati National Laboratory as a staff researcher in 1990.
Her research has focused on studying the structure of the nucleon and the strong force, areas of major emphasis at Jefferson Lab. In addition to Jefferson Lab and laboratories in Italy, Rossi also has conducted experiments at DESY Laboratory in Hamburg, Germany and the ESRF Laboratory in Grenoble, France.
Rossi is a referee for such publications as Physics Letters B, Nuclear Physics A, European Physics Journal A, Israel Science Foundation, Applied Radiation and Isotopes, and Science & Technology Facilities Council (UK). She also has been a collaborator on more than 160 refereed journal papers, and has served as a member of numerous conferences and workshops, including those in Italy, Russia, Armenia and Romania.
"Patrizia will be of tremendous value to the overall nuclear physics program at Jefferson Lab, in terms of Physics Division planning, optimizing collaboration and productivity, and increasing JLab science visibility. I am mightily pleased that she chose to join us," said Rolf Ent, associate director for nuclear physics.
"This is an exciting time to join Jefferson Lab as it grows and becomes an ever more interesting place to do research," Rossi said. "The 12 GeV Upgrade is a reality and is providing a challenge to develop new ideas and proposals to the science program. I am looking forward to becoming part of this dynamic effort."