Kawtar Hafidi is an experimental nuclear physicist at the Physics Division of Argonne National Laboratory, currently on detail assignment to the U.S. Department of Energy. She received her PhD from the University of Paris XI in France in 1999. Her research interests focus on the study of the structure of nuclear matter in terms of its most fundamental constituents namely quarks and gluons. Most of her research work has and is being done at the DESY Laboratory in Germany, at FermiLab in Batavia, Illinois and at Jefferson Lab in Virginia. She was elected as a member of Jefferson Lab users group board of directors in 2010.

Dr. Hafidi has led Argonne’s Women in Science and Technology (WIST) program and was the chair of the American Physical Society’s Committee on Status of Women in Physics (CSWP). She received numerous awards and has been recognized for her outstanding contributions, in both science and leadership, including: the US Department of Energy Outstanding Mentor Award (2010), the Association for Women in Science (AWIS-Chicago chapter) Innovator Award (2011). Most recently, she has received the Pinnacle of Education Award (2012) by the UChicago-Argonne LLC for her efforts to inspire and encourage young women to consider scientific careers. She is a co-author in more than 100 publications and has given more than 50 invited talks at international conferences, universities and laboratories.