Italian physicist becomes first woman director of physics research center CERN

The next director of the CERN laboratory, Fabiola Gianotti, will be the first woman to lead the European Organization for Nuclear Research, located outside of Geneva.

Gianotti was the leader of one of two teams that discovered the Higgs boson, or God particle, at CERN, The New York Times reports. The 52-year-old will begin her new role at the end of 2015, when current director Rolf-Dieter Heuer leaves. CERN is best known for being home to the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator.

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