Prof. Alessandra Guglielmetti
Universita' degli Studi di Milano and INFN, Sezione di Milano, Via Celoria 16, I-20133 Milano, Italy
Curator and author
I got the PHD in Physics at the University of Milano (ITALY) in 1995. The subject of the PHD thesis is Cluster Radioactivity, the spontaneous process by which nuclei can emit clusters of mass intermediate between that of an alpha particle and that of a fission fragment. Afterwards, I spent half a year at GSI Darmstadt (GERMANY) working at a mass separator and studying beta delayed proton emission. Then, I worked on proton radioactivity at Legnaro Laboratory (ITALY) and I was responsible of setting up the electronics for a double sided silicon strip detector in order to maximize the signal to noise ratio and be able to detect low energy protons. From 1998 I work in the LUNA collaboration, whose aim is measuring cross sections of nuclear reactions of astrophysical interest, at the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory (ITALY). Main results are for instance the cross section of the 3He(3He,2p)4He reaction down to the Solar Gamow peak, cross section of the 14N(p,γ)15O reaction which can give an upper limit on the Universe lifetime and cross section of the 3He(4He,γ)7Be reaction, of extreme importance for the solar neutrino fluxes.
From 2001 I have been working also in the EXOTIC collaboration, measuring elastic scattering and break-up with radioactive nuclear beams like 17F or 8B, to get information on the nuclear potential. From 2007 I am responsible for the Milano group in both collaborations.
Since July 2009 I am spokesperson of the LUNA collaboration and responsible at the Italian level for the INFN funding agency. I am also following the possibility of installing a new, more powerful, machine underground in order to study key reactions of the Helium burning.
At the University of Milano I teach in fundamental Laboratory courses and in the “Radioactivity” course. In June 2010 I got the habilitation as associate professor of nuclear Physics.
Milano, 10th March 2011