Professor Meenakshi Narain's research interests are in experimental high energy physics and her ultimate goal is to illuminate the character of physics at the TeV energy scale. At the loftiest level, it is part of the age old quest of mankind to understand where we come from and why we are here. Meenakshi Narain has been involved with the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (Geneva, Switzerland) and the DØ experiment at Fermilab (Batavia, IL). She was instrumental in the discovery of the top quark in 1995, which is the heaviest fundamental particle and as heavy as an Osmium atom.
Narain continues her quest at the LHC with the CMS experiment. In 2012, Narain’s group had significant involvement in the discovery of the Higgs Boson. Narain continues her quest at the LHC with the CMS experiment. In 2012, Narain’s group had significant involvement in the discovery of the Higgs Boson.
Since Jan 2020, she has been serving as the co-convener of the “Energy Frontier” group of Snowmass 2021 exercise, and leading the diaglogue to develop the vision of the global HEP community and US participation in the next future collider project.
Narain was elected Chair of the USCMS Collaboration Board from June 2018 until June 2022, and the first female Collaboration Board Chair. In this capacity, she represented the US members collaborating on the CMS experiment in LHC. The US contingent includes ~1200 members (scientists, students, and engineers) from 48 universities and 2 national labs in the US, which constitutes about 27% of the international CMS collaboration. She is a member of he Management Board of the international CMS Collaboration as the representative of the US collaboration. This board is the highest governing body of the CMS Collaboration.
Narain served as a member of the HEPAP (2019-2022), and recently appointed to the APS Committee on Minorities in Physics (2022-2024).
Narain served as the “Convener of Upgrade Physics and Performance Studies Group (HL-LHC)" for the international CMS experiment from February 2016-December 2018. In Jan 2013, Narain was appointed the coordinator of Fermilab's LHC Physics Center for CMS, where she has promoted collaboration with colleagues from South America, Europe, India, and Iran, in a peaceful quest for knowledge.
Narain has been engaged in STEM outreach activities to encourage participation of young women in science. Prof. Narain serves as a member of the "Diversity Committee" of the CMS Experiment. She served as the founding chair of this committee from September 2017-August 2018. She is an informal mentor and faculty advisor of the Physics Department WiSE group. She is on the advisory comittee of the university GWiSE.
Prof. Meenakshi Narain received her PhD in physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She joined the Brown faculty in 2007 having previously taught at Boston University.
Narain is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. She has been a Wilson Fellow at Fermilab and has received a Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and Education grant, Major Research Infrastructure grants, and the CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. She is also a recipient of the Outstanding Junior Investigator Award from the US Department of Energy. Her current research is supported by the DOE. She is a co-author on about 600+ peer-reviewed journals, and has given numerous public lectures and invited conference presentations.
Her outreach efforts are numerous, e.g. in 2018 and 2019, she spearheaded a pilot to combine STEM activities with art and design at “WaterFire Providence”, visited by 30K people.
