Milla Baldo-Ceolin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Massimilla "Milla" Baldo-Ceolin
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Massimilla Baldo-Ceolin
August 12, 1924 Legnago, Italy
|
| Died | November 25, 2011 (aged 87) |
| Alma mater | University of Padua |
| Occupation | Particle Physicist |
| Awards | Feltrinelli Prize Enrico Fermi Award |
Massimilla "Milla" Baldo-Ceolin (born August 12, 1924, in Legnago, Italy – died November 25, 2011) was an important Italian scientist. She was a particle physicist, which means she studied the tiny pieces that make up everything around us.
Milla's father owned a small workshop where he fixed machines.
Contents
About Milla Baldo-Ceolin
Milla Baldo-Ceolin went to the University of Padua in Italy. She graduated in 1952. Just six years later, in 1958, she became a physics professor at the same university.
In 1963, she made history. Milla was the first woman to become the head of the Physics Department at the University of Padua. This was a very big achievement!
Discovering New Particles
Scientists had already found "antiparticles" like the antiproton and antineutron. These are like mirror images of regular particles.
After a science meeting in 1957, Milla Baldo-Ceolin worked with another scientist, Derek Prowse. Together, they discovered the "antilambda." This was the first "antihyperon" ever found. It helped us understand more about the universe's building blocks.
Working with Neutrinos at CERN
In the 1970s, Milla became very interested in neutrino physics. Neutrinos are tiny particles that have almost no mass and travel very fast. They are hard to study because they don't interact much with other matter.
Milla joined an experiment at CERN, a huge science lab in Switzerland. She worked with a team to figure out something called the "Weinberg angle." This angle is important for understanding how fundamental forces work.
She also joined a big international team at CERN. They used a special machine called a "bubble chamber" to study how neutrinos interact with other particles.
Leading New Experiments
In 1976, Milla started her own experiment. She wanted to see if electron-muon-neutrinos could change into each other. This idea is called "neutrino oscillation."
Her experiment continued with help from the NOMAD collaboration. NOMAD stands for "Neutrino Oscillation MAgnetic Detector." Milla was a great leader in this project.
She also helped develop the ICARUS experiment. This experiment looks for rare particle events deep underground at the Gran Sasso laboratory.
Leadership Roles
Besides her research, Milla also held important leadership jobs.
From 1965 to 1968, she was the head of the local section of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) in Padua. Then, from 1973 to 1978, she was the head of the Physics Department.
In 1998, she started a series of international meetings about neutrino telescopes. These meetings happen at the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti. She also helped coordinate groups of scientists studying neutrino oscillations across Europe.
Milla Baldo-Ceolin was still a Professor Emeritus at the University of Padua when she passed away in 2011. She had been given this special title in 1998.
Awards and Honors
Milla Baldo-Ceolin received many awards for her amazing work:
- 1976: She won the Feltrinelli Prize from the Accademia dei Lincei.
- 1978: She received a Gold Medal for Education and Arts.
- 1995: She was given a Gold Medal for Science.
- 2007: She won the Enrico Fermi Prize from the Italian Physical Society.
See also
In Spanish: Milla Baldo-Ceolin para niños
