Prof. Skinnari’s research is in experimental particle physics, using the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland to probe fundamental questions about nature and our universe. Her research focuses on physics involving top quarks – the heaviest of all known elementary particles. In parallel, Prof. Skinnari is working on upgrading the CMS trigger system, responsible for deciding which collision events to store (only a small fraction of the LHC collisions are kept for later analysis). In particular, she is developing very fast identification of charged particle trajectories. Prior to joining Northeastern, Prof. Skinnari was a research associate with Cornell University on the CMS experiment. She received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, searching for signs of physics beyond the Standard Model with the ATLAS experiment.