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.

She carries out research on Neutrino Physics at the Fermilab Laboratory in Batavia, USA, and in the field of Hadronic Physics with high energy electron beams  at the Jefferson Lab in Virginia (USA). Over the years she has contributed to many research fields, from the study of heavy ion collisions at ultra-relativistic energies (ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider of CERN) to the characterization of Mediterranean marine sites for the construction of the KM3 neutrino telescope.

Since 2019 she is the local coordinator of the ICARUS experiment at the INFN Section di Catania, for the study of short-baseline oscillations of neutrinos and the search for sterile neutrinos.

• Neutrino Physics
  - Experiment ICARUS in the Short Baseline Neutrino program at Fermilab, Batavia, USA
• Hadronic Physics with Electroweak Probes
  - Experiment JLAB12 at Jefferson Lab, Virginia, USA