Fermilab, United States
I have always been fascinated by mathematics and numbers from an early age. It was just fun puzzles to try to figure out, patterns you could see, and it wasn’t until I took my first physics class that it really sunk in that everything from math class could be used to predict phenomena. I could predict how to shoot a basketball to make a hoop. I played a lot of basketball as kid, and from that moment on, the part of me that loved math loved that it could be used to understand the world around me. So physics was it for me.
The DUNE detector is going to be a unique facility on planet Earth, and so in addition to the things we know we’re going to tackle with this detector, one also has the opportunity to ask the question: What else can we do that we haven’t thought of yet? It’s really stimulating thinking about what’s possible for cutting-edge science. I also enjoy that it’s a worldwide enterprise. Right now, we have a guest engineer from Colombia staying here for 2.5 months. I get to spend time with him doing physics and science and developing the detector, but also sharing stories and experiences. It’s gratifying seeing how what motivates us to do the science is universal.