In April, the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) announced that Fermilab postdoctoral neutrino physicist Simone Marcocci had won the Bruno Rossi Prize for his Ph.D. thesis work. The Bruno Rossi Prize is given for outstanding doctoral work in astroparticle physics.
Simone Marcocci’s thesis, completed at the Gran Sasso Science Institute of L’Aquila, is titled “Precision Measurement of Solar Neutrino Fluxes with Borexino and Prospects for 0νββ Search with 136Xe-Loaded Liquid Scintillators.” This work provides a report on the most precise measurement to date of low-energy solar neutrino fluxes by the Borexino experiment. The results allow scientists to better understand the nature of the innermost core of the sun, as well as properties of neutrinos arising from the sun.
With this recognition, the INFN pays tribute to Bruno Rossi, scientist who made fundamental contributions to the physics of elementary particles through the study of cosmic rays. He was among the first to discover X-ray sources outside the solar system and identified the decay of the muon, measuring its average life.
The INFN gives the annual awards for the best doctoral theses in four additional research areas of the institute: subnuclear physics, nuclear physics, theoretical and technologies, and research and development activities in the field of calculation. The prizes are dedicated to the memory of illustrious Italian physicists or INFN colleagues: Marcello Conversi, Bruno Rossi, Claudio Villi, Sergio Fubini, Francesco Resmini and Giulia Vita Finzi. The five INFN National Scientific Commissions and the Commission for Computing and Networking have been conferred, starting from last February, by the bodies that direct the INFN research.
Read the INFN article on the 2018 awards (in Italian).
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