Mario D'Andrea

Hello! My name is Mario. I am from Berkeley, California, and although I fell in love with physics many years ago, this is not why I wanted to come to CERN. Rather, I believe CERN represents humanity’s best future, not just for science but for our subjective human experience too.

I believe this because we now face problems unlike those of prior centuries: global problems of epic scope. These problems, like the work done at CERN, require massive international collaboration. For example, climate change, refugees, and water management just to name a few. I feel obligated to become an active part of these collaborative efforts, and to bare witness to the inspirational men and women who don’t just represent CERN, but who are CERN. In this way I hope to honor the second most important export of CERN (after physics of course): radical collaboration.

The past nine weeks have been the best summer of my life. This, despite the fact that I spent a significant amount of time feeling very lost! There was a great sense of camaraderie among summer students, even as we represented some one-hundred or-so countries. This inspired me to create a t-shirt design which emphasizes the international character of the summer students. The design won the contest, and I have even started seeing it pop up around CERN in non-summer-student related contexts. A great way I was able to connect with people was through music. I joined a band here at CERN (The Monopoles) and together we played at the Hadronic music festival! Weekly rehearsals and jam sessions was definitely a highlight of my summer. And, in a conveniently symbolic way, just as radical collaboration is a vital aspect of CERN’s work, music as an international language complimented my research activities.

PS: F****ing Jana!