After more than sixteen years at the ATLAS experiment it seems to be time for a change, and for me that change is going from quarks to qubits, and from a mix of fundamental research, teaching and science communication to a full-time job working on public engagement and didactics for the recently founded Munich Quantum Valley.
Fifteen years ago, Tuesday 8 March 2005 at 9:57am, I received my CERN account, to start working for the ATLAS Experiment.
What started as an internship – chosen because of a lack of courses in the field I originally planned to pursuit, the physics of macromolecules – in the high-energy-physics group at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, turned into a stay at CERN during the Summer Student Programme and a Master’s thesis about the electron identification with the ATLAS transition-radiation tracker (internal) together with studies on a precision measurement of the W-boson mass.
During my PhD at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY in Zeuthen and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and various short stays at CERN I was mainly working on the commissioning of the ATLAS pixel detector (internal) and data-driven algorithms to determine the W+Jets background in events with pair-produced top quarks, and was involved in the startup of the German National Analysis Facility.
Going back to the Niels Bohr Institute as a postdoc, I started working on searches for unconventional signatures and long-lived particles and got stuck with that ever since.
I started out looking for heavy, charged long-lived particles, an analysis I continued also after moving to LMU Munich in 2014. Since then, I had the pleasure of leading two ATLAS physics subgroups – supersymmetry with R-parity-violating and long-lived signatures as well as exotics with unconventional and exotic Higgs decays – and joined a community effort in documenting the current status and harmonise searches for long-lived particles at the LHC. Amongst other things, I am currently also working on searches for Soft Unclustered Energy Patterns as signatures of strongly coupled Hidden Sectors and just finished my habilitation.
Besides physics analysis, especially looking for long-lived particles, I was always interested in science communication and education and have been involved in outreach projects since 2006. Highlights were and are certainly the design of the ATLAS LEGO model in 2011, the creation of the ‘Build Your Own Particle Detector‘ programme in 2013 and running it since, the coordination of the ATLAS contribution to the 2019 CERN Open Days, and the still ongoing work on a new ATLAS Visitor Centre. Since 2018, I am also an Education & Outreach coordinator for the ATLAS Collaboration.
I hope to have quite a few more years within ATLAS and other collaborations …
Time to move has been my motto for the past couple of weeks and will most likely continue to be so for a few more weeks to come. Most things are in fact already arranged for and just need to be done now … though the latter is usually the harder part.
Anyways, tomorrow will be my last day in Copenhagen! At least for as long as I am currently planing ahead.
Btw. thanks to everyone helping us with the move!
As for our previous two relocations and as kind of an evolving tradition, we are currently running another round of furniture sponsoring for our new apartment. So please consider becoming a sponsor to help us sustain a nice home for our stuff ;)
You can find all the details on my dedicated sponsoring page.
Finally the time has come.
It’s time to say good bye yet another time to a place that has yet even more become my second home. Having lived in Copenhagen for over five years within the past ten and it being the birthplace of my son, it’s been quite tough leaving the city today.
It has neither been easy the first time in 2005, nor the second time in 2007, but this time it really got to me.
Anyways … I wanted to thank everyone that had his/her share in making me enjoy the time in Copenhagen as much as I did.
Vi ses København
You never know …
In fact it’s actually a sad fact to some extend, but anyways.
It’s been a while since I’ve been looking for apartments and I though Copenhagen was the extreme case I’d never have to face again. So much for what I was thinking … back in reality I found myself looking for apartments in Munich. While the apartment we have in Copenhagen (as nice as it is) already put quite some weight on my wallet, the ones available (not necessary to us particularly, but general spoken) in Munich can yet trump the current situation.
Besides the whole pricing issue, there is a fun(ny) difference in style of apartments between Copenhagen and Munich. While it was not too easy to find an apartment in Copenhagen that had a bathroom that could fit two people at the same time or where you could take a shower that does not cover the whole room in water, this seems extremely easy in Munich. on the contrary I am slowly getting annoyed by the fact that seemingly all the apartment (even small ones) in Munich have in fact a second bathroom, some of the even two bath tubs. I appreciate the luxury, but do not exactly see the need why a three-room apartment for a couple or small family should waste spend precious and expensive square meters on a second shower/toilet.
Other countries, other customs. I guess …
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