Lucio Cerrito

Lucio Cerrito is a particle physicist studying the properties of subatomic particles, the production and mass of the top quark, the associated production of W-bosons with bottom and charm quarks, and the Higgs boson in high-energy hadronic collisions. The analysis of the production and dynamics of heavy quarks at the energy frontier could lead to the discovery of unknown particles and forces, advancing our understanding of the Universe and its space-time fabric.

Professor Cerrito works on the ATLAS experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (Switzerland) since 2007 and is a member of the CDF Collaboration at the Tevatron collider in the USA since the early 2000’s. With CDF, Cerrito measured properties of the W boson (the polarisation at high transverse momentum) and of the top quark (the production rate and mass), worked on the early alignment of the tracking detector and was responsible for the operations of the central muon detectors during the Run II commissioning phase and until 2004. In 2004, Prof. Cerrito investigated a claim of new physics in W and jets with semileptonic B decays. He went on to study the charge correlation of W and B in top pairs and while searching for anomalies on the charge signs of the muon from the semileptonic heavy quark decay and the accompanying W, he performed the first measurement of W+charm production cross section. This technique allows the direct determination of the strange quark density in the proton. In 2016, prof. Cerrito used ATLAS data to perform the first ever measurement of CP violation in B mesons produced from top-quark decays, and in 2019 he led ATLAS most precise top quark mass measurement using semileptonic B decays.

Professor Cerrito has held academic positions at Queen Mary University of London, the University of Oxford and the University of Illinois. He is a grantee of the European Research Council for the project NPTEV-TQP2020, a Fellow of the UK Institute of Physics and a Fellow of the of the UK Higher Education Academy.

EDUCATION
- Ph.D. in Experimental Particle Physics, University College London, 2002
- Laurea in Fisica, “Sapienza” University of Rome, 1998
- Postgraduate Certificate on Academic Practice, Queen Mary University of London, 2009

MAIN ACADEMIC POSITIONS HELD
-Reader in Particle Physics, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, UK), 2013 -16
-Lecturer of Experimental Particle Physics, Queen Mary University of London (UK), 2006 -13
-PPARC Research Fellow, University of Oxford (UK), 2005-06.
-Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA), 2002-05

INSTITUTIONAL MANAGEMENT and PANELS 
-Coordinator of the Faculty of Sciences, University of Rome Tor Vergata (2021-24)
-Vice Director, Department of Physics, University of Rome Tor Vergata (2018-24)
-Member of the University's Technology Transfer Committee, University of Rome Tor Vergata (2022-25)
-Member of the University’s Research Committee, University of Rome Tor Vergata (2019-22)
-Member of the Group of Evaluation Experts (GEV), Physical Sciences, ANVUR VQR 2015-19 (2020-22)
-Chair, Outreach Working Group, Department of Physics, University of Rome Tor Vergata (2018-21)
-Member of the Faculty of Sciences Coordination Committee, University of Rome Tor Vergata (2018-21)
-Member of the national panel 02/A1 (experimental HEP) of the Italian Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale (2016-18)
-Member of the Doctoral Teaching Board, Department of Physics, University of Rome Tor Vergata (2017-)
-Member of the Research Quality Committee, Department of Physics, University of Rome Tor Vergata (2017-21)
-Member of the Teaching Student-Staff Committee, Department of Physics, University of Rome Tor Vergata, (2017-19)
-Director for Admissions to the QM London PhD Programme in Particle Physics (2012-13)
-Member of the UK Science and Technology Projects Peer Review Panel, (STFC) 2010-11
-Deputy Chair of the School of Physics Exam Board, QM London (2012-13)

AFFILIATIONS and PRIZES
-Grantee of the European Research Council, ERC Consolidator Grant (2015-21)
-Fellow of the UK Institute of Physics (Elected 2018)
-Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (Admitted 2009)
-Recipient of the QMUL Science and Engineering Research Performance Award (2013)
-Co-recipient of the 2019 EPS-HEP Prize to the CDF and D0 Collaborations (2019) “for the discovery and detailed measurements of the top quark”
-Co-recipient of the 2013 EPS-HEP Prize to the ATLAS Collaboration (2013) “for the discovery of the Higgs boson”
-Recipient of a UK Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship (2011)
-Recipient of a UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council Fellowship (2005-08)
-Member of the European Physical Society (2015-)
-Member of the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN (2007-)
-Member of the CDF Collaboration at FermiLab (2000-)