Niki Saoulidou

Professor Niki Saoulidou is an experimental particle physicist and Professor of Physics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). Her research career spans neutrino and collider physics, with a focus on the experimental search for fundamental phenomena beyond the Standard Model, precision studies of particle interactions, and the development of innovative analysis, reconstruction, and computational methodologies.

She received her B.Sc. (1996) and Ph.D. (2003) from the Physics Department of NKUA. Her doctoral research was carried out at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) with the DONUT experiment, which achieved the first direct observation of the tau neutrino. She subsequently joined Fermilab as a postdoctoral researcher and, in 2006, was selected as a Fermilab Wilson Fellow. During her years at Fermilab, she made major contributions to the MINOS and NOvA neutrino experiments and participated in the early development and strategic planning of next-generation long-baseline neutrino facilities in the United States, including the programme that evolved into DUNE. In 2009, she received the European Physical Society Young Physicist Prize for her contributions to neutrino physics.

Since 2009, Professor Saoulidou has been a member of the CMS experiment at CERN, where her research has focused on jet physics, Standard Model measurements, and searches for new physics in hadronic final states. Her work has encompassed the full experimental chain, from detector performance, reconstruction, jet identification and calibration to the development of data-driven analysis methodologies and searches exploiting conventional and trigger-level datasets. She has held numerous scientific leadership positions within CMS, most notably serving as Co-Convener of the EXOTICA Physics Analysis Group (2019–2021), one of the collaboration's major physics-analysis groups, where she coordinated a broad international programme of searches for phenomena beyond the Standard Model. Her other CMS leadership and coordination responsibilities span physics and object-performance groups, Analysis Review and Publication committees, and the CMS Conference Committee, reflecting sustained involvement in both the scientific programme and broader scientific coordination of the collaboration.

Professor Saoulidou returned to Greece in 2011 to join the faculty of NKUA, becoming Associate Professor in 2018 and Full Professor in 2025. In parallel with her CMS responsibilities, she has held senior scientific leadership and advisory roles internationally. She served as Chair of the Fermilab Long-Baseline Neutrino Committee (LBNC), following several years as a member of the committee, and as an ex-officio member of the Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee. She has also served on the Fermilab LHC Physics Center (LPC) Management Board and on scientific strategy, funding, and evaluation committees in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Since 2025, she has been a co-author of the Particle Data Group reviews on W′ and Z′ bosons.

Her current research programme combines searches for new phenomena at the LHC with advanced computational and AI/ML methodologies for particle physics, building on a long-standing emphasis on methodological innovation throughout her experimental career. She has secured more than €1.5 million in competitive research funding as Principal Investigator and leads an active research group at NKUA, with a strong emphasis on the training, mentoring, and scientific development of graduate students and early-career researchers.

• 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