What's wrong with me?

The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) conducts advanced studies exploring big questions of the 21stcentury and beyond. Its research gains insights into Celtic society and its legacy; progresses our understanding of our island, our planet and the universe; and deciphers the underpinning mathematical principles of nature.The Institute leads Ireland’s participation in a number of international and global initiatives that focus on big unanswered questions for mankind.When it was founded in 1940, DIAS was the world’s second-only institute for advanced studies – and the first such institute in Europe. For 80 years, it has pushed the boundaries of discovery and, today, it is a globally-embedded institution that attracts high-calibre researchers from all over the world in its core disciplines of Celtic Studies, Theoretical Physics, Astrophysics and Geophysics. DIAS Dunsink Observatory is a designated European site of historical significance for physics.

Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

DIAS, in partnership with the Institute of Physics, presents this EDI talk delivered by Dr Pauline Gagnon (formerly of CERN)

Pauline Gagnon at DIAS

Dr Pauline Gagnon, formerly of CERN, visits DIAS in late January to deliver two very important talks. The first talk is presented in partnership with the Institute of Physics.

Why are sexism, homophobia and racism still so prevalent in physics? Pauline will start from her own personal experience to demonstrate that, in fact, the personal is political. CERN, the largest physics laboratory in the world, welcomes scientists from 112 nationalities but still about 80% of them are white and 80% are male. She will examine why people from so many various groups have been historically excluded from physics and suggest a series of easily applicable measures that could greatly improve diversity in physics. These measures would benefit all scientists, regardless of their gender, race, sexual orientation, physical ability or religion. It has been established that diversity benefits science by increasing the creativity potential, a key ingredient in scientific research.**********Supported by the Institute of Physics. The Institute of Physics (IOP) is the professional body and learned society for physics in the UK and Ireland, with an active role in promoting co-operation in physics around the world. We strive to make physics accessible to people from all backgrounds.As part of its current strategy the IOP want to build a thriving, diverse physics community and play our part in solving the STEM skills shortage by ensuring that people, no matter their background or where they live, have access to world-class physics education and training. Our EDI initiatives to support this objective can be found <a href="https://www.iop.org/about/IOP-diversity-inclusion" title="https://www.iop.org/about/IOP-diversity-inclusion" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">here</a>, including our Limit Less campaign, which focuses on influencing the influencers of young people to empower them in the their passions and ability to change the world.**********Pauline Gagnon Bio:I was born in Chicoutimi in Quebec, Canada in 1955. As a young kid, I dreamt of understanding what were the fundamental constituents of matter. After teaching physics for a few years in local colleges, I moved to California in 1985. I first studied at San Francisco State University then completed a PhD in particle physics at University of California in Santa Cruz. After that, I started my research activities at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics located near Geneva, where I worked as a Senior Research Scientist with Indiana University. I participated to the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 and looked for dark matter within the ATLAS experiment. From 2011-2014, I joined the CERN Communication group, writing blogs and answering questions from numerous media worldwide. Explaining particle physics in simple and accessible terms became my trademark. In 2014, I wrote a popular science book called “Who cares about particle physics: Making sense of the Higgs boson, the Large Hadron Collider and CERN”, which is also available in seven other languages. I hope my book will allow me to reach large audiences since particle physics is too much fun to leave it only to physicists! Since retiring in 2014, I have given more than one hundred fifty presentations to various audiences in fourteen countries, talking about physics, diversity issues and Mileva Marić Einstein. I am currently writing a screenplay for a mini-series on Mileva Marić Einstein and other women in science.**********

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