Fabiola Gianotti

thumb|Fabiola Gianotti in 2015 Fabiola Giannotti (born 29 October 1960) is an Italian experimental particle physicist who served as Director-General of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) from 2016 to 2026. Quotes Interviewer: Are you looking for God? Gianotti: No. I don’t think physics will ever be able to answer that question. Science and religion are separate disciplines, though not mutually exclusive. You can be a physicist and have faith, or you may not. It’s best for God and science to keep a healthy distance. Interviewer: But you’ve called the Higgs bison "the God particle". Gianotti: No scientist has ever dared to describe it in such terms. We owe this to the publisher of the book written by Nobel laureate Leon Lederman. He wanted to cloak the work in a literary veil that would certainly make an impact. Lederman had suggested another title, *The Damned Particle*, because it had driven us to despair; we had been searching for it for decades. It is undoubtedly a special particle, but to liken it to God is nonsense. Quoted in "Io, tra Dio e il Big Bang". Fabiola Gianotti, direttrice del Cern: la signora dell'universo, La Repubblica, 28 December 2014. Si, io credo in Dio. Non ci sono contraddizioni tra scienza e fede, l’importante è lasciare i due piani separati: essere credenti o non credenti, non è la fisica che ci darà una risposta. La scienza si basa sulla dimostrazione sperimentale e la religione si basa su principi completamente opposti, cioè sulla fede, tanto più benemerito chi crede senza aver visto. Yes, I believe in God. There is no contradiction between science and faith; the important thing is to keep the two spheres separate: whether one is a believer or a non-believer is not something physics can answer. Science is based on experimental proof, whereas religion is based on completely opposite principles – namely, faith; all the more commendable, then, is the person who believes without having seen. Fron an interview by Lilli Gruber at the TV programme Otto e mezzo, La7; reported in La scienziata Gianotti è credente? Ecco la reazione antiteista, 10 February 2015. External links Gianotti, Fabiola Category:1960 births Category:Living people Category:Women scientists from Italy Category:Physicists from Italy Category:Women born in the 1960s