Maria Elena Monzani Photo by Steffen Luitz
Maria Elena Monzani received her PhD from University of Milano and University of Paris 7, working on Solar Neutrinos. She was a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Columbia University in New York, before moving to the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in 2007. Her research field is astroparticle physics, which focuses on issues at the intersection between particle physics and astrophysics/cosmology. Her main research interest involves the search for Dark Matter, which makes up for most of the mass of the Universe but has an unknown origin and composition. As a member of the LUX-Zeplin collaboration, she is building a new multi-ton Dark Matter detector to be installed in the former Homestake mine in South Dakota. She also leads the Science Operations Team for the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. Dr. Monzani is very passionate about science outreach and education: she has collaborated to several science exhibits with the Euresis association and most recently she was the instructor for the "Nature of the Universe" course at Stanford University.
