Meenakshi Narain passed away on Jan. 1, 2023. The chair of the physics department at Brown University, she was a member of the CMS Collaboration for many years and previously had been part of the D0 Collaboration at Fermilab. She was suffering from cancer since 2020.

Meenakshi was born on May 9, 1963, in Gorakhpur, India. Meenakshi earned her doctorate in physics from the State University of New York, Stony Brook. She had a B.Sc. degree from Gorakhpur University in India and a M.Sc in Physics from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India. She was recently awarded a distinguished alumnus award from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India.

Meenakshi made significant contributions to CMS in many areas. She was engaged in physics analysis, upgrades, operations and in management. She was a member of the management board as the U.S. regional representative. She served as the chair of the US CMS Collaboration, the coordinator of the LHC Physics Center at Fermilab and a leader of the CMS group from Brown University. She was a founding chair of the CMS Diversity Office and a leader of the CMS Women’s Forum. She was also a leader in the US CMS Tracker Upgrade Project. Her impact on CMS has been immeasurable, and her many contributions have been critical to the success of the collaboration.

Meenakshi was a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion within the collaboration and served as a member of the CMS Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion. She was a mentor to many young people, beyond her own PhD students and postdocs. She was a convener of the Snowmass 2021 Energy Frontier Working Group, a member of DOE/NSF High Energy Physics Advisory Panel and a member of the newly announced HEPAP P5 sub panel.

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