The Women who run the biggest machine ever built by Man
The complexity of LHC and the women in charge of it



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Francesca Cavallari studied physics at Università La Sapienza in Rome, where she also got her Ph.D. After spending two years at CERN's thanks to a scholarship, since 2001 she has worked for the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN - National Institute of Nuclear Physics).
She joined the CMS experiment to take care of the construction, testing and installation of the Electromagnetic Calorimeter (which can be seen behind her in the picture), made of 62,000 Lead Tungstate Crystals.

"Everything began with a school field trip to CERN, during my third year of university. I visited the L3 experiment by Nobel prize winner Samuel Ting and when I entered the control room I remember I suddenly understood what I really wanted to do in life: breathe the air of a great physics experiment, live those exciting moments when you process data and are a part of and witness to great discoveries."