INFN-LNF Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati
Gemma Costa’s PhD thesis, “Design study of plasma targets for laser-driven wakefield acceleration experiments”, has been selected as one of the winners of the “Francesco Resmini” National Prize for the year 2021. The prize is awarded to PhD students with a thesis in the field of Accelerator Physics and New Technologies.
Gemma Costa’s thesis, carried out in the SPARC_LAB group at the National Laboratories of Frascati (LNF-INFN), stood out for the relevance and originality of the results achieved. This focused on the study, realisation, and characterisation of plasma sources for experiments involving new plasma acceleration techniques, in the context of the EuPRAXIA European project. Gemma Costa will be awarded the prize and will present her work in front of the National Scientific Commission 5 (CSN5), at the meeting to be held in April in the LASA-INFN section.
Gemma Costa has a Master’s degree in Physics from La Sapienza University of Rome, and a PhD in Accelerator Physics. She is involved in the study of plasma acceleration techniques for the production of particle beams and radiation. She is currently a research fellow at LNF, in the SPARC_LAB group.
With the Resmini Award the INFN commemorates the figure of the Milanese physicist Francesco Resmini (1938-1984), one of the pioneers of studies on accelerator machines and applied physics for environmental and medical diagnostics. In 1976 Resmini proposed the feasibility study of a superconducting cyclotron, which led to the construction in the 1980s of the K800 superconducting cyclotron for use at INFN’s National Southern Laboratories.