Latifa Elouadrhiri has dedicated her professional life to the study of experimental physics, working for nearly three decades at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility of the Department of Energy. At conferences aimed at encouraging women in their undergraduate years to seek degrees in physics as well as jobs in the field, she has shared her enthusiasm for science with others, particularly women and members of other underrepresented groups.
Such efforts and her various professional accomplishments have not gone unnoticed by the public. The 2021 Jesse W. Beams Research Award was just granted to Elouadrhiri, and it acknowledges particularly significant or outstanding physics research that has received critical acclaim from peers around the world. Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society (SESAPS) created the prize in 1973. Only two other women have received it before Elouadrhiri.
Elouadrhiri remarked, “This is just a great honor for me and for the work we do.” For more than just myself, the team of scientists, including technical personnel and students, that began at Christopher Newport University and continues at Jefferson Lab, has been recognized with this award.
At the time, Elouadrhiri was working with CNU in a joint post at the lab. When she first started working in the experimental hall in 2001, she was promoted to senior staff scientist.
With the help of the CEBAF, Elouadrhiri and his colleagues are able to study the proton that lies inside of an atomic nucleus in unprecedented detail. CEBAF is a nuclear physics research facility created by the Department of Energy (DOE).
The CEBAF completed an upgrade in 2018 that quadrupled its maximum design energy to 12 billion electron-volts, or 12 GeV, allowing unprecedented access to the enigmatic constituents of subatomic matter. Hall B’s experimental program was reorganized around a new detector known as CLAS12 as a result of the upgrading. Elouadrhiri was in charge of all phases of the CLAS12 project, from conception to completion.
When Elouadrhiri and her team published the first measurement of pressure distribution inside a proton that year, they found that the quarks in a proton are subject to pressures 10 times greater than those seen in the center of a neutron star. They published their findings in the journal Nature, which paved the way for a new era in nuclear and particle physics research.
According to SESAPS, Elouadrhiri made “fundamental and lasting contributions to the development of experimental equipment in forefront nuclear science.”
An unexpected path led Elouadrhiri to Jefferson Lab. Sixth of eight children in Morocco, her mother could neither read nor write but still believed in the importance of education for her children’s future success.
Elouadrhiri stated, “She had never been to school, but she had a vision.” “She had a clear vision for the future and set the stage for us by prioritizing education, especially for women. Educating girls and choosing one’s own path were important to her, and she supported us in every endeavor.”
Seven of the eight siblings would attend college and pursue careers as diplomats, physicians, college professors, computer engineers, artists, and economists.
After taking her first physics lesson in high school, Elouadrhiri found herself “just fascinated” with the subject matter. It’s a mix of math, physics, and philosophy that explains how the world works.
A book by Werner Heisenberg, a German scientist and Nobel laureate in 1932, was her first introduction to the field of quantum mechanics when she was 15 years old.
and I became enthralled with the story,” Elouadrhiri added. This particular book has become a constant companion of hers since then.
At Mohammed V University of Rabat, she received a bachelor’s degree in theoretical physics and a master’s degree in the same field. She proceeded to France to pursue a Ph.D. at the Saclay Nuclear Research Center and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, where she conducted experiments. She was offered a postdoctoral job at the University of Massachusetts Amherst after completing her doctorate.
Nathan Isgur, then Jefferson Lab’s top scientist at a time when the lab was still known simply as CEBAF, first learned about her work during an American Physical Society meeting. A joint JLab/CNU job opened up as a result of Isgur’s invitation to present a seminar on her study.
A permanent position at the esteemed French National Centre for Scientific Research was also made available to her at the same time (CNRS).
Elouadrhiri stated, “I just followed my heart.” Staying in this place was what my heart prompted me to do.”
‘It’s a tremendous recognition for the science that we do,’ she said. Motivates me to further develop experimental procedures for determining how protons and neutrons, the building blocks of all atomic nuclei, are bound together by strong forces. The CLAS12 science program will also help us gain a better grasp of these forces.
Personally, this honor allows me to share my enthusiasm for scientific study with other women around the world while also allowing me to carry on with my work aimed at increasing scientific involvement among people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. “I’m really looking forward to it.”
