Niki Saoulidou

Professor Saoulidou received her B.Sc. (1996) and Ph.D. (2003) from the Physics Department of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Greece. Her doctoral research was conducted within the DONUT (Direct Observation of the Tau Neutrino) experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), USA, which achieved the first direct observation of the tau neutrino—the last undiscovered lepton of the Standard Model. In 2003, she joined Fermilab as a postdoctoral researcher with the MINOS (Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search) experiment, which provided definitive confirmation of neutrino oscillations using accelerator-produced neutrinos. In 2006, she was selected as a Fermilab Wilson Fellow, a prestigious fast tenure-track position equivalent to an Assistant Professorship. During this period, she played a central role in the MINOS and NOvA experiments and was actively involved in the conceptual development and strategic planning of next-generation long-baseline neutrino facilities in the United States, including what evolved into the DUNE experiment. In 2009, she was awarded the European Physical Society Young Physicist Prize for her contributions to neutrino physics. That same year, she joined the CMS experiment at CERN, where she has since led precision studies in jet physics, advanced Standard Model (SM) measurements, and innovative searches for physics beyond the SM involving jet final states.

She returned to Greece in 2011 as Assistant Professor at NKUA, becoming Associate Professor in 2018 and Full Professor in 2025. She has held key leadership roles in major international collaborations, notably serving as Co-Convener of the CMS Physics Analysis Group “EXOTICA” (2019–2021), one of the largest analysis groups within CMS, where she coordinated large international teams in the pursuit of new fundamental phenomena. Professor Saoulidou has also served, both as member and chair, on high-level international scientific committees in the United States, Canada, and Europe, contributing to strategic planning and scientific oversight of large-scale research infrastructures. She has secured competitive research funding and continues to teach and mentor talented students and early-career researchers, shaping the next generation of physicists.

• Full list of publications can be found at

https://inspirehep.net/literature?sort=mostrecent&size=25&page=1&q=find%...

• Selected publications can be found in my detailed CV