Dr. Giorgio Gratta

Biography

Giorgio Gratta is a Ray Lyman Wilbur Professor in the Department of Physics at Stanford University. His research interests span a broad area of fundamental particle physics and interactions. Gratta began his career with experiments at particle colliders and has focused on the study of neutrinos and gravity at the shortest distances. He has conducted landmark experiments utilizing neutrinos produced by nuclear reactors, collaborating with others to investigate neutrino flavor mixing, and has notable contributions including reporting evidence for neutrino oscillations. He has established the finite nature of neutrino masses and has worked on experiments designed to detect neutrinos within the interior of the Earth, thus providing a new tool for Earth sciences. Following the natural evolution of the discovery of neutrino oscillations, Gratta led the development of liquid xenon detectors aimed at searching for neutrinoless double beta decay, a rare nuclear decay which has implications for understanding the quantum nature of neutrinos and for explaining the asymmetry of matter and antimatter in the universe. Currently, he is the scientific leader of large-scale experiments in this field worldwide, with ongoing studies of new long-range interactions or anomalous gravitational behavior at distances as small as 50 micrometers, employing innovative techniques such as optical levitation of microscopic particles in a vacuum and using Mössbauer spectroscopy and neutron scattering on nanostructured materials.

Research Interests