Elisabetta Barberio wins prestigious prize for contribution to physics

The prestigious Italian Republic Order of Merit (Cavaliere dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana) was awarded to Centre Director Elisabetta Barberio for her international contribution to physics research.

Professor Barberio was presented with the award by Italian consul-general Dr Hanna Pappalardo at a ceremony at the Consulate General of Italy in Melbourne last night.

The award is Italy’s highest-ranking honour and recognises Professor Barberio’s work, including seminal research that facilitated two Noble Prizes in physics; 2008 Kobayashi and Masukawa and 2013 Englert and Higgs. 

She is currently leading the Dark Matter Centre’s work to build Australia’s first major underground dark matter experiment, the SABRE South experiment, which will be located in the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory.

The research partners the SABRE South experiment in Italy, and its Southern Hemisphere location enables scientists to discount the effects of seasonal fluctuations to determine the presence of dark matter signals.

Professor Barberio grew up in Southern Italy and said she was honoured to receive the award from her country of birth.

 "I'm delighted and deeply honoured to have received this recognition from Italy for my research in particle physics. Italy is a superpower in this globally significant field,” Professor Barberio said.