The Moroccan nuclear physicist Rajaa Cherkaoui El Moursli contributed significantly to the discovery of the Higgs boson with the construction of the electromagnetic calorimeter in the ATLAS detector, which is one of two general-purpose detectors at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Thanks to her significant scientific contribution, she received the L’Oreal-UNESCO award for Women in Science as a Laureate representing Africa and the Arab States in 2015.

In addition to her scientific contributions, Cherkaoui is also an activist who promotes the education of African and Moroccan girls and incites them to pursue sciences and knowledge. She advocates for the improvement of the quality of research in Morocco.