Meenakshi Narain (FAC)

Meenakshi Narain, of Providence, R.I.; Jan. 1, following a brief illness. She was a high energy experimental physicist who joined the Brown faculty in 2007 after spending nine years at Boston University. She served as Brown’s physics department chair from July 1, 2022, the first woman to hold that title. She had been involved with the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment and was elected chair of the USCMS collaboration board from June 2018 until June 2022, subsequently being the first female collaboration board chair, and she was a leader of the CMS group from Brown. She was a founding chair of the CMS Diversity Office and a leader of the CMS Women’s Forum. In this capacity, she represented the U.S. members collaborating on the CMS experiment. She was instrumental in discovering the top quark, the heaviest fundamental particle, in 1995. She authored more than 850 peer-reviewed studies in leading physics journals and gave numerous public lectures and invited conference presentations. In 2000, she received both an outstanding junior investigator award from the U.S. Department of Energy and a National Science Foundation early career development award. In 2007, she was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society, and in 2012, she was elected a fellow of the LHC Physics Center at Fermilab. Her outreach efforts were numerous, including organizing and founding the Big Bang Science Fair at WaterFire Providence, a public outreach event that brought hands-on science experiences to local kids and community members. She is survived by her husband, Ulrich Heintz, a fellow professor of physics at Brown, and two sons.