Faïrouz Malek

Prof. Fairouz Malek is a senior scientist and physicist in nuclear and particle physics and cosmology. She was born and raised in Algeria where she completed her university studies in physics. After obtaining a Master in nuclear physics at the Science and Technology University of Algiers (Algeria), she had the opportunity to pursue doctoral studies at the University of Grenoble in France. After her doctorate, she obtained a full research position at the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) in France. She is currently working at CERN (European Organization for Particle Physics) on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and contributed to this early century's major discovery in particle physics, the Higgs boson. Prior to that, she participated in a heavy ion collision experiment at CERN's Super Proton Synchrotron, an experiment that contributed to the discovery of the quark-gluon plasma state, QGP, in 2000. She was member of a NASA space experiment, AMS, to search for antimatter in space and contributes to the studies of the future circular collider, the FCC. In 2022, she participated in kicking off the PAUL project, the unique future underground laboratory infrastructure in South Africa. In parallel with her research, she served as team leader of the Grenoble group participating in the CERN ATLAS experiment. During her tenure, the group contributed to the design, the prototyping and the construction of the Liquid-Argon electromagnetic calorimeter and to the analysis of Higgs physics and the search for signals beyond the Standard Model. In 2010, she was called upon to lead the French National Grid Infrastructure to provide the highest performing computing and grid technology for LHC experiments. In addition to her academic activities, she served at the C13 of IUPAP and IGPD of EPS committees, dealing with physics for developing countries. In 2019, she co-founded the African Strategy for Fundamental Physics and its Applications. In 2002, she co-founded the association "Parité Science" in Grenoble and was its first president. The association promotes equal access for women and men to scientific and technical professions, promotes the image of science among women and the image of women in science and encourages girls and women to engage in scientific and technical professions. The association is also representing the national association "Femmes et Sciences" (women in sciences) in the Alps.