Stephanie Zimmermann

Stephanie Zimmermann (October 29, 1973-November 10, 2020) was a German physicist who worked on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. As a researcher from the University of Freiburg, she was involved in the Muon Detector Control System activities, and she served as muon run-coordinator. She was elected and served as ATLAS Run-Coordinator in 2012–2014. She then became Project Leader of the New Small Wheel project (NSW), part of an extensive upgrade, the largest phase 1 upgrade project for the ATLAS detector.

Education Zimmermann studied physics at the University of Freiburg, where she earned Master's and Ph.D. degrees, supervised by R.Schneider, Gregor Herten, and A.Bamberger.

Career As a master's student in 1999, Zimmermann joined the ATLAS experiment, working on the muon system of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. She continued her work in the ATLAS collaboration during her doctoral thesis,

Muon Run-Coordinator As research fellow she coordinated integration of the Monitored Drift Tube and Resistive Plate Chambers. This work ensured this task was completed on time for installation in the ATLAS underground hall. and she served as muon run-coordinator.

ATLAS Run-Coordinator

"The discovery of the Higgs of course gave a huge push also to the operations side, because if your detector doesn't work well, you don't have data to do your analysis." — Stephanie Zimmermann Bernd Stelzer of the ATLAS Muon Collaboration wrote that ATLAS is "undergoing an extensive upgrade program over the coming decade. The largest phase 1 upgrade project for the ATLAS Muon System is the replacement of the present first station in the forward regions with the so-called New Small Wheels." Auriane Canesse wrote that NSW is designed to produce approximately a seven-fold "increase in rejection rate for fake muon triggers and an improved muon momentum measurement at HL-LHC. According to Cristina Agrigoroae, "The New Small Wheels will allow much more stringent selection criteria for muons and provide new detector technology to handle the high backgrounds and high pile-up rates — the two main requirements for the High-Luminosity LHC."

Awards and honors Zimmermann received university awards for the best master's thesis and also for the best 2004 doctoral thesis, which was titled, High Rate and Ageing Studies for the Drift Tubes of the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer.

Zimmermann was elected ATLAS run coordinator for a two-year term, March 2012 – March 2014. Two of the most significant are: