High honor from the Slovak Republic for JGU physicist and member of the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence
13 January 2025
Livia Ludhova, Professor of Experimental Neutrino Physics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and member of the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence, has been awarded the Slovakian Order of Ľudovít Štúr, 2nd Class, Civil Division. The award ceremony was held on January 11, 2025 by the President of the Slovak Republic, Peter Pellegrini, in Bratislava. The Order of Ľudovít-Štúr is the third highest state honor in Slovakia and is awarded by the President on the recommendation of the government. Ludhova is thus honored for her extraordinary contributions to the development of the Slovak Republic in the field of science and technology and for her outstanding efforts to promote the reputation of the Slovak Republic abroad.
Ludhova is one of the world's leading experts in the field of low-energy neutrino physics. She was born in Bratislava in 1973, where she earned a PhD in geology and a master's degree in physics. She then moved to Fribourg in Switzerland, where she completed her doctorate in experimental nuclear and particle physics. She has many years of experience in the measurement of solar neutrinos and geoneutrinos, specializing in the study of neutrino properties with large-volume liquid scintillator detectors. In 2005, she became a member of the Borexino collaboration, the underground experiment to study low-energy solar neutrinos in Gran Sasso, Italy, and is currently its physics coordinator. Since 2014, she has also been a member of the JUNO collaboration, the underground observatory in Jiangmen, China, for the study of neutrinos with its unique 20,000-ton liquid scintillator detector, and is now a member of its executive committee.
Ludhova's award of the Order of Ľudovít-Štúr not only confirms the excellent quality of her research, but will also further strengthen JGU's visibility as a leading international center for particle and astroparticle physics.