Hi everybody!

My name is Serena Palazzo and I am an ESR at The University of Edinburgh
within the Innovative Training Network (INSIGHTS) program. My supervisor
is Michele Faucci Giannelli who gave me the possibility to join this network. 

I was born in the very south part of Italy, in Calabria and there I got my degrees
in Physics at the University of Calabria in Cosenza. My high school path was
focused on classical studies but, since that time, I started to be enthusiast
about physics and I decided to start my undergraduate studies in Physics.
 
During my bachelor path I started to be interested in particle physics and my
first collaboration in this field was within the hadronic calorimeter DREAM
community; I worked in this context for the calibration of this calorimeter.
Then, for my master degree I started working within the ATLAS collaboration.
My first project within the ATLAS collaboration was focused on the Phase-1
upgrade program of the Muon Sprectrometer of the experiment where I
contributed in testing the new MicroMegas chambers. During my master
thesis project I collaborated with researchers of the LNF laboratory (the Italian
laboratory of particle physics). This collaboration gave me the possibility to
learn a lot about the upgrade program of the ATLAS detector and to increase
my knowledges on particle physics. I changed then topic, moving from the
upgrade work to the measurements of cross sections. I started working
within the top quark working group of the ATLAS collaboration where I
contributed doing measurements of differential cross sections of the top
quark pairs. 

During my studies I won a scholarship (INFN-CERN associate simil fellow)
that gave me the possibility to spend 1 year at CERN. Spending this time at
CERN was very useful from the point of view of my career development; I had
the possibility to meet and collaborate with several reaserchers coming from
all the part of the world. 

About my work within the INSIGHT newtwork, while continuing work on top
quark measurements, I am learning new important techniques such as
Machine learning techniques that I am currently using for different projects. 
The network is without doubt a great opportunity for first years researchers to
enrich the research paths; it allows to have exachange of knowledges
between the ESRs as well as it offers the possibility to follow useful trainings
to consolidate and widen the knowledges. 

See you soon!