In memoriam: Fernanda Pastore (1949-2010)

1 November 2010

The adventures of Fernanda in science began in the 1970s with proton-proton collisions at the CERN Intersecting Storage Rings, the new energy frontier at the time. Her activity was then focused, still with a collider, on more elementary interactions, when SPEAR at SLAC pushed forward the electron-positron energy frontier.

When CERN initiated the challenge to the electro-weak unification with the proton-antiproton collider, Fernanda enthusiastically joined the project with UA2. There she met Paolo, the faithful companion of her life.

After many scientific achievements, she became a professor at the University of Pavia. The most intriguing question at the time was the search for neutrino oscillations and she turned her interest in this direction with NOMAD at CERN, and later with the futuristic challenge of the neutrino factory project, with target and beam studies in HARP, at CERN, and muon cooling studies with MICE at Rutherford Lab. After many years of tiring commuting, she became a professor in Rome, with Roma Tre; there Fernanda and Paolo consolidated their scientific and familiar union.

When CERN launched the LHC project, she heard the 'Call of the Wild' of her first scientific love of proton-proton physics at the energy frontier, and joined ATLAS since the very early days. She spent the many years until the first collisions in a continuous effort in the laboratory, on computing, in organization tasks, and in a tireless mission in spreading her enthusiasm to the public, to students and to colleagues from other disciplines about the meaning of this scientific challenge. Among her many outreach activities she led the organization of Particle Physics Masterclasses, the first approach of high school students to particle physics.

Fernanda's scientific profile is known to many of us; less known were her superb qualities as teacher, her charming approach with students, her ability to focus their attention towards the steps of modern physics adventures. Fernanda left a deep imprint in her students and some of them followed her in the path for discovery in particle physics and are now promising scientists in ATLAS. The scientific life of Fernanda is marked by a fascinating attraction towards the new frontiers and the challenge to intriguing puzzles. This, joint with a pragmatic approach typical of her north-italian education, made an admirable mix of enthusiasm, energy in organizing the work, and care in establishing excellent human relations.

All of us remember her enthusiasm and energy in the organization of the ATLAS Physics Workshop in Rome in 2005. When we took the group picture she was concerned in giving the last instructions to the photographer, then she hurried to join the group and was wandering to find a position in the crowd. But the trigger came too early and captured this unforgettable portrait of a 'Gruppenbild mit Dame'.


 

Her friends and colleagues from ATLAS