University of Minnesota, United States
One has to wonder – I’m 72 years old, why am I running around building an experiment? I have friends, colleagues, who have retired at this kind of age, and I keep doing it because it’s fun. I’m getting to the age where one worries about one’s mortality, and what guarantees immortality is the influence one has on other people, particularly younger people – especially on my children and grandchildren, but also on many years of students, both undergraduate and graduate, that I’ve had the opportunity to interact with. With neutrinos, the physics comes in so slowly, and everyone is into ‘blinded analysis,’ where you have no idea how the data is coming in. There are a few ‘box opening days’ when you actually look at your results, but then the next box opening day won’t be for maybe two years. What do you do in the meantime besides count the days? Well, you get to work with fantastic people, and that happens every day, and that’s what keeps you going. I play racquetball for exercise, and generally I play against students. One of my criteria for not retiring is as long as I can beat some of the 18-year-olds, I figure I’m good for something.