Elena Aprile
{{short description|Italian experimental particle physicist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|mf=yes|1954|3|12}}
| birth_place = Milan, Italy
| field = Physics
| alma_mater = University of Naples
University of Geneva
| work_institution = Columbia University
| known_for = XENON Dark Matter Search
| image = ProfessorElenaAprile.jpg
| footnotes =
| doctoral_students = Reshmi Mukherjee
}}
Elena Aprile (born March 12, 1954) is an Italian-American experimental particle physicist. She has been a professor of physics at Columbia University since 1986. She is the founder and spokesperson of the XENON Dark Matter Experiment. Aprile is well known for her work with noble liquid detectors and for her contributions to particle astrophysics in the search for dark matter.{{cite news |last=Kolata |first=Gina |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/science/07women.html?pagewanted=all |title=Women Atop Their Fields Dissect the Scientific Life |work=The New York Times |location=New York |date=2011-06-06 }}{{Cite web|url=http://discovermagazine.com/2010/jul-aug/20-the-dark-hunter|title = Discover Interview: The Dark Hunter}}
Education and academic career
Aprile studied physics at the University of Naples and completed her masters thesis at CERN under the supervision of Professor Carlo Rubbia.{{cite news|language=fr|title=Elena Aprile, la chasseuse de matière noire|website=Le Monde|date=2017-05-29|author=Nathaniel Herzberg|url=http://www.lemonde.fr/sciences/article/2017/05/29/elena-aprile-la-chasseuse-de-matiere-noire_5135536_1650684.html|accessdate=2017-05-29}} After receiving her Laurea degree in 1978, she enrolled at the University of Geneva, from which she received her Ph.D. in physics in 1982. She moved to Harvard University in 1983 as a postdoctoral researcher in Carlo Rubbia's group. Aprile joined the faculty of Columbia University in 1986, attaining her full professorship in 2001. From 2003 to 2009, Aprile served as co-director of the Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory.
Research
Aprile is a specialist in noble liquid detectors and their application in particle physics and astrophysics.E. Aprile, A. E. Bolotnikov, A. I. Bolozdynya, T. Doke: Noble Gas Detectors. Wiley 2006. She began working on liquid argon detectors as a graduate student at CERN, continuing her research as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard. At Columbia she investigated the properties of noble liquids for radiation spectroscopy and imaging in astrophysics.{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1103/RevModPhys.82.2053|title = Liquid xenon detectors for particle physics and astrophysics|year = 2010|last1 = Aprile|first1 = E.|last2 = Doke|first2 = T.|journal = Reviews of Modern Physics|volume = 82|issue = 3|pages = 2053–2097|arxiv = 0910.4956|bibcode = 2010RvMP...82.2053A|s2cid = 118576462}} This work led to the realization of the first liquid xenon time projection chamber (LXeTPC) as a Compton telescope for MeV gamma rays.
From 1996 to 2001, Aprile was spokesperson of the NASA-sponsored Liquid Xenon Gamma-Ray Imaging Telescope (LXeGRIT) project, leading the first engineering test of the telescope in a near-space environment and subsequent science campaigns with long-duration balloon flights. LXeGRIT used a liquid xenon time projection chamber as a Compton telescope for imaging cosmic sources in the 0.15 to 10 MeV energy band. A total of about 36 hours of data were gathered from two long-duration flights in 1999 and 2000, at an average altitude of 39 km.{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1016/j.newar.2003.11.053|title = Calibration and in-flight performance of the Compton telescope prototype LXeGRIT|year = 2004|last1 = Aprile|first1 = E.|display-authors=etal|journal = New Astronomy Reviews|volume = 48|issue = 1–4|pages = 257–262|bibcode = 2004NewAR..48..257A}}{{cite journal |url=http://xenon.astro.columbia.edu/lxegrit/publications/Aprile_IEEE03.pdf |doi=10.1109/TNS.2003.818235 |title = A New Light Readout System for the LXeGRIT Time Projection Chamber|year = 2003|last1 = Aprile|first1 = E.|last2 = Curioni|first2 = A.|last3 = Giboni|first3 = K.-L.|last4 = Kobayashi|first4 = M.|last5 = Ni|first5 = K.|last6 = Oberlack|first6 = U.G.|journal = IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science|volume = 50|issue = 5|pages = 1303–1308|bibcode=2003ITNS...50.1303A }}{{cite web |url=http://xenon.astro.columbia.edu/lxegrit/ |title=LXeGRIT - A Liquid Xenon Gamma-Ray Imaging Telescope |date=2002-10-22 |accessdate=2015-02-12 }}
Since 2001, Aprile's research focus shifted to particle astrophysics, specifically to direct detection of dark matter with liquid xenon.{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.081302|title = Simultaneous Measurement of Ionization and Scintillation from Nuclear Recoils in Liquid Xenon for a Dark Matter Experiment|year = 2006|last1 = Aprile|first1 = E.|display-authors=etal|journal = Physical Review Letters|volume = 97|issue = 8|page = 081302|pmid = 17026288|arxiv = astro-ph/0601552|bibcode = 2006PhRvL..97h1302A|s2cid = 2974093}} Aprile is the founder and spokesperson of the XENON dark matter experiment, which aims to discover WIMPs as they scatter off xenon atoms in massive yet ultra-low background{{cite journal |title=Study of the electromagnetic background in the XENON100 experiment |year=2011|volume=83|issue=82001|page=082001|doi=10.1103/physrevd.83.082001 |arxiv=1101.3866|bibcode=2011PhRvD..83h2001A|last1=Aprile|first1=E.|display-authors=etal|collaboration=XENON100 Collaboration|journal=Physical Review D|s2cid=85451637}} liquid xenon detectors operated deep underground.{{cite journal |arxiv=astro-ph/0407575|doi=10.1016/j.newar.2005.01.035|title=The XENON dark matter search experiment|year=2005|last1=Aprile|first1=E.|display-authors=etal|journal=New Astronomy Reviews|volume=49|issue=2–6|pages=289–295|bibcode=2005NewAR..49..289A|s2cid=18045108}}
Awards
- Aprile received the National Science Foundation Career Award in 1991 and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Award in 1999. She has been a Fellow of the American Physical Society since 2000.
- In 2005 she received the medal of Ufficiale della Republica Italiana from the Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.{{cite web|url=http://www.quirinale.it/elementi/Onorificenze.aspx?pag=112&qIdOnorificenza=59&cognome=&nome=&daAnno=1800&aAnno=2015&luogoNascita=&testo=&ordinamento=2 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20150316195508/http://www.quirinale.it/elementi/Onorificenze.aspx?pag=112&qIdOnorificenza=59&cognome=&nome=&daAnno=1800&aAnno=2015&luogoNascita=&testo=&ordinamento=2 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2015-03-16 |title=Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana |language=Italian |date=2015 }}
- Asteroid 268686 Elenaaprile, discovered by Italian amateur astronomer Silvano Casulli in 2006, was named in her honor. The official {{MoMP|268686|naming citation}} was published by the Minor Planet Center on 4 November 2017 ({{small|M.P.C. 107121}}).
- In 2019 she received the Lancelot M. Berkeley–New York Community Trust Prize for Meritorious Work in Astronomy from the American Astronomical Society.
- In 2020 she was selected as Margaret Burbidge Visiting professor of physics at UC San Diego,{{Cite web|url=https://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/uc_san_diego_announces_margaret_burbidge_visiting_professorship|title=UC San Diego Announces Margaret Burbidge Visiting Professorship|website=ucsdnews.ucsd.edu|access-date=2020-03-05}} and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.{{cite web|url=https://www.amacad.org/new-members-2020|title=New members|year=2020|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|accessdate=2020-09-27}}
- In 2021 she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences
References
{{reflist|30em|refs=
|title = 268686 Elenaaprile (2006 GW)
|work = Minor Planet Center
|url = https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=268686
|accessdate = 5 September 2019}}
|title = MPC/MPO/MPS Archive
|work = Minor Planet Center
|url = https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/ECS/MPCArchive/MPCArchive_TBL.html
|accessdate = 5 September 2019}}
|title = Elena Aprile of XENON1T to Receive 2019 Berkeley Prize
|publisher = AAS – American Astronomical Society
|date = 18 June 2018
|url = https://aas.org/posts/news/2018/06/elena-aprile-xenon1t-receive-2019-berkeley-prize
|accessdate = 5 September 2019}}
}}
External links
- [https://physics.columbia.edu/content/elena-aprile Columbia University faculty homepage]
- [http://www.xenon1t.org/ XENON1T homepage]
- [http://xenon.astro.columbia.edu/ XENON Columbia homepage]
- [http://xenon.astro.columbia.edu/lxegrit/ LXeGRIT homepage]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20150423110807/http://www.studio360.org/story/292104-finding-beauty-search-dark-matter/ Studio 360 story]
- [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories-0 Oral History Interview of Elena Aprile by David Zierler on April 30, 2021], Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD USA
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aprile, Elena}}
Category:Italian expatriates in Switzerland
Category:Scientists from Milan
Category:Italian experimental physicists
Category:People associated with CERN
Category:20th-century Italian physicists
Category:Columbia University faculty
Category:Italian women astrophysicists
Category:Italian astrophysicists
Category:21st-century Italian physicists
Category:Italian emigrants to the United States
Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society
Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences