Profile

On weekends, I like to stay active, so I often go shopping or for walks with my partner. We’re lucky to live near lots of farmland, so we get to enjoy beautiful walks—and often meet the local cats along the way! I love animals, so whenever I can, I visit farms or petting zoos. Sometimes, I even get to visit my partner’s family dog, which is always a treat!

I’m not someone who likes to sit still, so I usually keep myself busy with a few things at once. In the evenings, I like to wind down by watching my latest TV show (right now, it’s Grey’s Anatomy) while doing some drawing on my iPad. Having this time to myself is a great way to relax after a long day.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the biggest machine in the world for smashing tiny particles together. These particles, called hadrons, crash into each other at almost the speed of light. By studying what happens in these collisions, we can learn more about the universe.

I work on an experiment called FASER, which is in a tunnel under the LHC. Our detector looks for particles that other experiments, like ATLAS, might miss. There is 500 meters of rock between ATLAS and FASER, which helps block unwanted signals, making our results clearer.

Because the detector is underground and becomes highly radioactive when the LHC is running, we control it from a distance using computers. This is one of the coolest parts of my job! I get to take turns running the detector from my laptop for a whole week when I’m on shift.

After we collect data, my team works on analyzing it. This process takes about a year because there is so much information to go through! We first decide which particle we want to study—sometimes one that might interact with dark matter. Then, we use computer simulations to plan our analysis. Once we have results, we share them with other scientists at conferences and publish them in papers.

I like to start my day by writing a to-do list on my iPad—it helps me stay on track since I can easily get sidetracked! When I get to the office, I check my calendar for any meetings. If I’m on shift, I also check what tests need to be done on the detector and might have meetings about this.

Every day includes some data analysis, which means coding and making graphs. I really enjoy coding—seeing the little blue squares light up when I update my code on GitLab is a great motivator! When I finish a piece of code that produces a useful graph, I send it to my supervisors so we can discuss it. Research is all about teamwork, so this is an important part of my day.

Some days, I also give tours at CERN, which is one of my favorite things to do! Recently, I’ve taken groups down to see the ATLAS detector and explained how it works. I love answering questions about physics and detectors.

At the end of the day, I write down notes about things I want to work on tomorrow—ideas to explore or changes to make in my code. This helps me remember what to focus on next!