University of Lisbon, Portugal
DUNE is where particle physics meets cosmology. The fundamental scope of the science and the ambition of the project are very stimulating. Another reason to turn to physics is you have to prove things and not take anything for granted. It’s important for society as well, to not take arguments from authority but to make sure things are questioned and proven. I’ve worked in underground physics experiments for almost all my career, and in one of them, SNO+ in Canada, we had to install optical fibers in a large geodesic sphere 17 meters diameter in an even larger underground cave filled with water. Boating around that structure and climbing it was fantastic and outlandish. I’m used to having fun in labs: My dad is a physicist as well, so as a kid I spent some time running around in the lab corridors and using liquid-nitrogen carts like pushcarts.