M. Felcini

Marta Felcini is a high-energy physicist currently working on experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, focusing on the search for new fundamental particles and interactions. Her research aims to uncover previously unknown laws of physics that could help address profound cosmic questions—such as the nature of dark matter and the mysterious sources of cosmic energy that drive the evolution of the observable universe. The study of elementary particles and their interactions—through high-energy collider experiments, in combination with other experimental, observational, and theoretical investigations—advances our understanding of matter, energy, and the fundamental structure of the universe at the deepest levels currently accessible. Marta Felcini conducts research with the CMS experiment at the LHC. As a member of the CMS Collaboration, she contributed to the landmark discovery of a Higgs boson, announced jointly with the ATLAS Collaboration in July 2012. The observed Higgs boson, which carries no electric charge and has zero spin, exhibits properties consistent with predictions of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. However, small deviations between measured and expected values could suggest the Higgs boson is connected to phenomena beyond the Standard Model—such as the origin of dark matter. Previously, Marta Felcini worked on the L3 experiment at the Large Electron-Positron (LEP) collider, the LHC’s predecessor, where she searched for Higgs bosons and new particles potentially constituting dark matter. Her research also spans lower-energy experiments, including neutrino detectors and a study of the decay of ortho-positronium (a bound state of an electron and a positron) to search for signs of very light dark matter particles. Marta Felcini earned her PhD in physics from Boston University, where she pioneered a search for a charged Higgs boson (a Higgs boson carrying electric charge) in proton-antiproton collisions. Charged and other non-Standard Model Higgs bosons remain active areas of research at the LHC. Before her PhD, she completed her laurea in physics at Università La Sapienza in Rome, with a thesis in nuclear fusion, where she developed a detector to measure ion temperatures in plasma confined within the Frascati Tokamak. Marta Felcini has held research and teaching positions at CERN, ETH Zurich, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the Instituto de Física de Cantabria, and University College Dublin (UCD), where she is currently an Adjunct Professor in the UCD School of Physics. She continues to collaborate on ongoing research with the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC. She is also actively engaged in promoting equal opportunities in academia, outreach, and science education.