Rajaâ Cherkaoui El Moursli

Rajaâ Cherkaoui El Moursli
Born	(1954-05-12) May 12, 1954 Salé, Morocco
Occupation	Nuclear physics professor
Known for	Contributions to the study of the Higgs Boson, founding Morocco's first master's program in medical physics

Rajaâ Cherkaoui El Moursli (born 12 May 1954) is a distinguished Moroccan nuclear physics professor at the Faculty of Science, Mohammad V University in Rabat. She was recognized with the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science for her significant contributions to the study of the Higgs Boson.

Life

Born in Salé in 1954, El Moursli completed her initial mathematics studies at Lycée Descartes in Rabat. Despite facing cultural obstacles, she pursued advanced education overseas. Motivated by Neil Armstrong and an inspiring high school educator, she moved to Grenoble, France, where she earned her PhD in physics from the Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et Cosmologie at Joseph Fourier University. She returned to Morocco in 1982.

In 2015, El Moursli received the L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Africa and Arab States in recognition of her role in verifying the existence of the Higgs Boson, a particle essential to understanding mass generation. Her efforts have notably enhanced scientific progress and medical research in Morocco by founding the nation's inaugural master's program in medical physics.

Dave Charlton, spokesperson for ATLAS, commended her achievement and participation in the Higgs boson discovery, emphasizing her influence on international physics research.