Catia Maria Annunziata PETTA

last update: 9.2.2021

• 1/11/2020 – today: Associate Professor in Experimental Physics at the Department of Physics and Astronomy “Ettore Majorana” of the University of Catania
• 23/01/2014: Italian National Scientific habilitation (ASN) as associated professor in Experimental Physics of Fundamental Interactions (02/A1)
• 1/12/2000 – 31/10/2020: Researcher in Experimental Physics at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Catania (FIS/01 – Experimental Physics; 02/A1 – Experimental Physics of Fundamental Interactions)
• 29/1/1990 – 30/11/2000: Technical Officer at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Catania
• 10/12/1988: Master degree in Physics at the University of Catania, final grade 110/110 cum laude

Managerial roles

• Former member of the Physics and Astronomy Department of University of Catania's Directorate Board (2019-2020; 2004-2010).
• Member of the Local Organizing Committees for several international workshops (WISH 2010, Resonance Workshop at Catania 2014, CHERNE 2019).
• Member of the Scientific Committee for the international Conference CHERNE 2019.
• Guest Editor of the Special Issue of the Radiation Effects and Defects in Solids journal publishing the CHERNE19 Proceedings (Nov-Dec 2019).
• Former member (representing the Catania INFN Section) of the Commissione Scientifica Nazionale V of INFN (2007-2008).
• Supervisor of several theses for the bachelor, master and PhD degree in Physics.
• Member of Physics PhD Council.

Teaching experience

• 2007- today: Fisica 2 e Laboratorio (10 cfu - CdL Chimica L27)
• 2019- today: Hadronic Physics with Electroweak Probes (6 cfu - CdL Physics LM17)
• 2013 - 2019: Elementi di Elettronica (6 cfu - CdL Fisica L30)
• 2017 - 2019: Fisica Medica (2 cfu - Infermieristica L/SNT-1)
• 2000 - 2007: Elettronica / Fondamenti di Elettronica / Exercises of Fisica II / Esperimentazioni III / Laboratorio di Fisica III

Research activity

• From 1995 she is an associated researcher at Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) Sezione di Catania and from 1991 at Centro Siciliano per la Fisica Nucleare e la Struttura della Materia (CSFNSM). From 1996 she has participated in several experiments funded by the INFN National Scientific Committees II (ICARUS, NEMO, ANTARES, SPB2), III (JLAB12, ALICE) and V (DSI, ALGEN, FLUXEN, MARE, MOPI, PRIMA ), assuming the local leadership for some of them at the INFN Sezione di Catania (DSI: 1996-1998 and MARE: 1998-1999).
  From 2019 she is the local coordinator of the ICARUS experiment at the INFN Sezione di Catania.

• She participated in several former research projects promoted by the University of Catania and funded as University research programs (formerly 60%). She participated also in three research projects co-funded by MURST and MIUR (ex 40%).
  More recently, in the frame of the UniCT Piano Triennale Dipartimentale 2017-2020, she was the principal investigator of the Physics Department Linea2 research project Esperimento SBN: studio delle oscillazioni “short-baseline” dei neutrini muonici prodotti dal Booster del Fermilab. Currently, she  is an active member of the UniCT Piaceri-Linea2 research project MAYORANA (MultidisciplinArY netwORking Approach on Neutrino Aspects) - "Multidisciplinary Networking on Neutrino Physics for exchanging scientific knowledge (Science) & expertise (Technology) to lay the foundation of a cultural common field and a School of High Education”.

• Scientific association:
  CERN in Geneva (continuously from 2009 until today)
  FermiLab (Batavia, Illinois)
  Jefferson Lab (Newport News. Virginia)

• She is co-author of more than 400 scientific papers published in international physics journals.

Svolge attività di ricerca sulla Fisica dei Neutrini presso il Laboratorio Fermilab di Batavia, USA, e nel campo della Fisica Adronica con fasci di elettroni di alta energia presso il Laboratorio Jefferson Lab in Virginia (USA). Nel corso degli anni ha dedicato la propria attività a temi di ricerca in diversi campi, dallo studio delle collisioni tra ioni pesanti ad energie ultra-relativistiche (esperimento ALICE al Large Hadron Collider del CERN), alle attività di caratterizzazione dei siti marini finalizzate alla realizzazione del telescopio per neutrini KM3 nel Mediterraneo.

Dal 2019 è responsabile locale dell’esperimento ICARUS presso la Sezione di Catania dell’Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, per lo studio delle oscillazioni di short-baseline dei neutrini e la ricerca del neutrino sterile.

• Fisica del Neutrino
  - Esperimento ICARUS per lo Short Baseline Neutrino program del Fermilab, Batavia, USA
• Fisica Adronica con Sonde Elettrodeboli
  - Esperimento JLAB12 al Jefferson Lab, Virginia, USA

Guida alle tesi di laurea

Disponibilità a seguire laureandi dei CdL in Fisica Triennale e Magistrale per tesi compilative su tematiche generali di Fisica del Neutrino e principalmente relative ad esperimenti con fasci di neutrini prodotti da acceleratore (SBN, DUNE). Sono disponibili tesi sperimentali riguardanti attività in corso per l'esperimento ICARUS (Cosmic Ray Tagger, analisi degli eventi).