An Arab Scholar With a Militant Degree

According to a recent statistic published on the UNESCO website, only 30 percent of all researchers around the world are women. However, they usually face many barriers and obstacles that discourage many of them from pursuing a career in the field of science.

Perhaps this is what prompted the L’Oréal-UNESCO program, dedicated to honoring outstanding female scientists and supporting promising young researchers, to allocate five annual awards to five female scientists representing the world’s continents, in addition to selecting 15 female researchers and nominating them annually for a number of scientific fellowships. Much more progress is still needed to achieve gender balance in science.

Since 1998, the Women in Science Program has honored, according to UNESCO, nearly 2,250 talented women from more than 110 countries. However, for the first time in the award's lifetime, and since its launch in 1998, a Moroccan woman has excelled in the selection process.

A Dream comes true:

In a ceremony held at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France, March 18, 2015, Moroccan scientist Rajaa Cherkaoui El Moursili received the L'Oréal-UNESCO Prize for Women in Science, for her contributions to the physical sciences.

Al-Morsili was chosen among a number of other female scientists from around the world through an independent international jury, consisting of 12 pioneers in the field of science in the world. The committee was selected by Professor Ahmed Zewail, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry in 1999.

El-Moursili, a professor at Mohammed V University in Rabat, and a resident member of the Hassan II Academy of Science and Technology, which specializes in high energy physics, confirms the presence of active workers who have worked to fuel her determination to pursue her dream in the field of science. To continue my path of learning, and Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon."

Research Fighter:

According to UNESCO's website, El-Morselli was chosen for its major contribution to one of the greatest discoveries in physics: the proof of the existence of the Higgs boson, the particle responsible for creating mass in the universe.

Cherkaoui seeks, through her research in high energy physics and nuclear physics, to develop her field of specialization by adopting modern mechanisms that respond to the labor market and contribute to strengthening the position of the Moroccan University among international universities, which strengthens intellectual production by investing in the human element of the physics students category. It is considered one of the most important studies that contribute to sustainable development.

In addition to demonstrating the existence of the Higgs boson, Murselli contributed to the simulation and construction of the electromagnetic thermometer in the ATLAS nanoparticle physical detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). She also leads a science team at her university to support and analyze ATLAS data, with the team focusing primarily on top quark and Higgs boson data.

Although the LHC is a large collider that feeds several experiments, two major experiments - ATLAS and CMS - were solely responsible for the task of finding the Higgs boson, this long-sought particle, which in its role completes the Standard Model of particle physics. Or what is known as the theoretical description of the subatomic world.

The Large Hadron Collider is located under the Alps, on the French-Swiss border, and employs thousands of physicists from the United States, Britain, the European Union and Russia.

In addition to the aforementioned scientific achievement, the justifications for awarding El-Morsili the prize in its seventeenth session also stated that it devotes an important part of its time to improving the level of scientific research in Morocco, as well as its contribution to making the health system in Morocco more effective, by launching the first study program MA in Medical Physics, describing her as a "research fighter" in the field of science in her country, Morocco.

The Missing Part:

The British scientist Peter Higgs presented his theory about the formation of the universe in the so-called "Big Bang" in 1964, and the theory sheds light on one of the mysteries of physics, which is the particle responsible for the coalescence of the primary components of the universe's matter.

To simulate the conditions after the Big Bang to form the universe, the Hadron Collider was built at CERN. A series of experiments was conducted, in which the Higgs boson particle was observed in the laboratory and its current data confirmed its existence to a large extent, and that it is a particle present in the energy field of 125 gigaelectronvolts. And that is after nearly half a century of time spent by scientists and researchers in search of this particle.

Scientists from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced their detection of it, on the sidelines of the 62nd Conference of Nobel Prize Winners in the German city of Lindau in early July 2012. They said that they had detected a particle with similar properties to the so-called "Higgs boson". Theoretically responsible for matter gaining its mass and the formation of the universe.

The Big Bang theory states that the universe expanded rapidly from a state of highly compressible elementary matter, resulting in a significant decrease in both density and temperature. Immediately after that, matter dominated what is scientifically known as antimatter, due to a number of processes that gave rise to various types of elementary particles.

A career full of achievements:

El Moursili is one of the most prominent members preparing for Morocco's official participation in the international cooperation ATLAS at CERN, Geneva in 1996, and was a member of the first international research groups (GDRI) established by the National Institute for Scientific Research within the framework of the Atlas experience 2004, and since 1999 it has become a member and local coordinator At the Faculty of Science in Rabat in the University Network for High Energy Physics (RUPHE), in addition to its affiliation with many scientific councils within the university.

She is also a member of the Scientific Council of the National Center for Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology (CNESTEN). She was the first to introduce many postgraduate programs to the university, and she is also credited with introducing the MSc in Medical Physics to Morocco.

El-Moorsili was born in the Moroccan city of Salé on May 12, 1954, and after obtaining a baccalaureate degree in mathematics at the “Descartes” high school in Rabat, she continued her undergraduate studies in physics at the University of “Joseph Fourier” in Grenoble, France, where she obtained a doctorate.

Her first research within the framework of preparing a doctorate was carried out in the Laboratory of Atomic and Cosmic Physics in the French city of Grenoble, on the subject of heavy physical elements, and in 1982 she joined the Faculty of Sciences in Rabat, where she worked as a professor and researcher, and since 1999 she became a member and local coordinator of the Faculty of Sciences in Rabat in the university network for high energy physics. In 2013, she was appointed Vice-President in charge of Scientific Research, Cooperation and Partnership at the University of Agdal-Rabat.

“The first challenge was to convince my father to allow me to go to France to complete my postgraduate studies. At that time, Moroccan society was still very conservative, and most girls did not leave their homes until they were married…” In these succinct words Professor Raja Cherkaoui El Moursili expressed - Laureate of the L'Oréal-UNESCO Women Scientist Prize in 2015 - for those challenges facing Arab women if they decide to complete their educational path and reach their dreams to further horizons, for many years they have been the preserve of the male sex.

A message to Moroccan Women:

Moussili feels that the award is important for Morocco and for Moroccan women, and expresses this feeling by saying: “I think we are in a relatively good position in Morocco, and women make up 30-40% of the attendance in scientific colleges in the country.” She adds: “I hope that this award will encourage more of women in Morocco, the Arab region and the African continent to study sciences.

Al-Morsili expresses her concern about the persistence of obstacles that prevent girls from completing their educational path, as she says: "The thing that bothers me the most is knowing that a student has stopped studying, especially if the reason is marriage," noting that she is not against the idea of ​​marriage because she herself is married. A mother of three children, she was able, with the help of her husband and family, to reconcile her family life with her field of work in the field of science.

El-Moursili did not forget to send a precious message to all Moroccan girls. In a press interview, held in Casablanca on April 14, 2015, she called on Moroccan girls to benefit from the support provided by the family and the state, and not to stop studying and learning.

She also called on them not to give up their right to study or work, even outside the country, saying: "I am surprised by the attitude of some girls who refuse to travel outside Morocco in order to achieve their dreams. Our country of origin again.