Carena, Marcela
Oral history interview with Marcela Carena, 2021 March 3.
Marcela Carena, Distinguished Scientist and head of the Theory Division at Fermilab, is interviewed by David Zierler. Carena describes her dual position as professor of physics and member of the Fermi and Kavli Institutes at the University of Chicago and she surveys the many areas of Higgs physics in which she is currently working. She recounts her familys Italian and Spanish heritage and her upbringing in Buenos Aires and the opportunities she pursued as she became interested in science. Carena describes her undergraduate education at Instituto Balseiro where she developed an appreciation for the interplay of theory and experimental high energy physics. She explains her decision to remain for graduate school where she worked with Roberto Peccei and she describes her research at DESY in Germany and her focus on supersymmetry and sphalerons. Marcela describes the importance of meeting Bill Bardeen during her postdoctoral appointment at Purdue and her subsequent research at the Max Planck Institute where she was focused on the LEP collider at CERN. She explains her decision to move to CERN full time and she conveys the impact of the SSC cancellation from the vantage point of CERN. Carena describes the opportunities that led to her staff position at Fermilab where she continued to develop her interests in supersymmetry and Higgs physics. She conveys the impact of the shutdown of the Tevatron and she describes the emotional component of the discovery of the Higgs. Carena explains why her focus on dark matter and electroweak baryogenesis are natural extensions from the Higgs discovery, and she wonders what it will look like if and when we come to understand what dark matter is. She reflects on what has, and has not, been seen at the LHC over the past decade, and she discusses both the scientific and political value in Fermilab supporting an International Relations Directorate. At the end of the interview, Carena describes her recent interests in quantum information and why quantum computers may yield new insights on the early universe, she conveys her pride in Fermilabs leading efforts to promote diversity and inclusivity in science, and she explains why there is cause for optimism in the quest to understand dark matter.
Theoretical physicist Marcela Carena obtained an undergraduate degree in physics from the Instituto Calseiro of Argentina (1985) and a Ph.D in Physics from the University of Hamburg (1989). She is Distinguished Scientist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and professor of physics at the University of Chicago. Carena is also an active member of the American Physical Society.
Bardeen, William A.
Carena, Marcela
Peccei, Roberto.
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (Center)
Enrico Fermi Institute.
European Organization for Nuclear Research
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Instituto Balseiro
Max-Planck-Institut f r Physik
Purdue University
University of Chicago
Colliders (Nuclear physics).
Dark matter (Astronomy)
Higgs bosons.
Particles (Nuclear physics)
Argentina.
Interviews. aat
Oral histories. aat
Transcripts. aat
Zierler, David, 1979- interviewer.
AIP-ICOS
American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA