On July 4th, 2012, one of physics' most exhilarating results was announced: a new particle - and very likely a new kind of particle - had been discovered at the Large Hadron Collider, the huge particle accelerator designed to reproduce energies present in the universe a fraction of a second after the Big Bang.

Lisa Randall is Professor of Phsyics at Harvard University. She is one of today's most influential and most cited cited theoretical physicists, and has received numerous awards and honours.

Randall is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Physical Society, and is the recipient of several honorary degrees.

When not solving the problems of the universe, she can be found rock climbing, skiing, or contributing to art-science connections.