Pauline Gagnon holds a PhD in Physics from the University of California and a M.Sc in Physics from the San Francisco State University.
She has been an associate scientist at the Physics Department of the Indiana University and a particle physicist for CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) since 1999. Pauline Gagnon is also a member of the ATLAS collaboration that gathers more than 3000 physicists, engineers coming from more than 37 countries around the world. In her spare time she is the editor of ATLAS e-news, the internal paper of ATLAS, since 2005 in which she discusses women activities within the sector.

Pauline Gagnon is the author of many publications on Physics and particles.


MY DETECTOR IS BIGGER THAN YOURS : BIG SCIENCE, PARTICLE PHYSICS AND WOMEN


Abstract for the plenary session by Pauline GAGNON Associate scientist at the Physics Department of Indiana University At CERN, the European Center for Particle Physics located near Geneva, the construction of the largest ever accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is nearing completion. The first proton-proton collisions are expected this summer, marking the beginning of a new era in particle physics. I will talk about the LHC project and the ATLAS detector, one of four gigantic detectors being built to study the many particles that will come out of these collisions. The hope is to find new but theoretically predicted particles, such as the elusive Higgs boson, needed to explain the mechanism by which matter acquires mass. I will describe the field of particle physics and its main challenges today. More than 2200 scientists coming from 37 different countries participate in the ATLAS experiment. With only 17% women, I will examine the role given to women within the ATLAS collaboration in this male-dominated environment.