IJCLab, France
One thing I’m really into is playing fantasy football. It all started when I heard about the game and realized what a great playground it would be for applying the statistical analysis and machine learning skills I learnt through physics. I went on to develop a software that analyses data from the Brazilian soccer league and optimizes player selection in the fantasy game. It’s always been a bit like this with me. I see a cool puzzle or idea and I have to explore it in depth.
I actually started doing engineering in my undergraduate in Brazil. But when my physics classes finished I knew I needed to learn more. I was fascinated by the ideas of quantum mechanics and relativity, which were new to me. It was like a rabbit hole, and there was so much more behind that. It ended up taking me into neutrino research. I did my PhD on the MINOS neutrino experiment at Fermilab, followed by postdocs working on NOvA and KM3NeT. Now I’m an associate scientist at IJCLab working on DUNE. The liquid-argon technology had always captured my imagination with its beautiful and detailed images. You can really see all the richness of neutrino interactions. It feels like an amazing new playground to explore all the exciting physics that I fell in love with and maybe even discover something beyond.