Valley City State University, United States
I was good at math and didn’t want to be an actuary, so quantum mechanics seemed like the next best thing. I got into physics and became a professor, but I’ve worked in theatre as a technician, rigger, and technical director. There’s some overlap between theater, or concerts, and physics. The thing about a concert is the trucks show up at 7:30, you have four hours to build, there are 25 people with different roles, and sometimes there isn’t even a stage, so they build it. It’s all very timed and orchestrated. With physics, we have these proposals and all this manpower that has to be fully coordinated, and you’re trying to build things and innovate solutions. You don’t buy particle detectors off the shelf at a store. And then? It’s showtime.