Michigan State University, United States
I wasn’t always interested in physics. I have scars from vultures. I used to work at a zoo, with birds of prey and reptile exhibits. So I have pictures of me holding an eagle. And they only weigh like 10 pounds, but all on your arms. I ended up in physics because I like working with people. It’s amazing that we can sustain a collaboration across so many continents and institutions, reinforced by contact at in-person meetings. The people are a lot of fun, and quirky, and interesting, and you get really transformative ideas that come out of them. When you’re thinking about getting an electric field uniformly across this enormous detector, filled with huge amounts of liquid at cryogenic temperatures, it honestly sounds insane. This is a chance to bring really cool ideas to fruition, and to come up with solutions and make things work.