Profile
Max de Carlos Generowicz
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About Me:
Hi! I live in Brighton and go to the University of Sussex. I am a 2nd year PhD student and spend most of my day in the lab. However, I also enjoy sports (such as tennis and volleyball) and music (piano and violin).
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When I’m not working, I like to relax by playing music. I play in two orchestras with my violin and regularly play piano in the mornings in the university’s lovely Meeting House.
In the rest of my free time, I play a lot of sports. I play weekly tennis matches for my local team and also train with the university volleyball team. I travel to Portsmouth once a week to play tchoukball (a Swiss handball sport) and have recently joined the Brighton Sailing Club, with which I go out on weekends.
I also enjoy working on personal projects at home: my most recent interest is programming microcontrollers, tiny little computers that can be used to control lights, fans and many other electrical components.
Fun fact: I grew up in Geneva, right next to CERN: the biggest centre for physics in the world!
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My pronouns are:
he/him
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My Work:
My work is in the field of particle physics. In my group, we are designing and building a detector used to catch tiny particles called neutrinos.
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Our group is interested in studying neutrinos, which are very small particles (much much smaller than atoms!) which pass through us and the Earth every second. In order to study them, we must “capture” them and measure some of their properties. This sounds easier than it is!
One half of my work is what we call “simulation”. The idea is to create our detector in a computer program, then use that program to tell us how the particles going through our detector would look like in real life. This helps us design our detector without having to build it, which saves a lot of time and money.
On the other hand, I also do a lot of work in the lab. Most of my current work is testing the different components that will later go into the detector. It is very important to know how each component will behave in order to make sure nothing goes wrong later on.
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My Typical Day:
I wake up and get to the office between 9am and 10am. I will read my messages first, as it is good to stay up to date with other people’s work as well. Then, I will go into the lab and do some experiments. I will sometimes stay in the office and do some coding. Once one of my experiments or codes is running, I will have lunch. After lunch, I will continue with what I was doing before and then head home when everything is complete.
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I find it very important to know what the rest of my group is doing, which is why I spend some time on our shared messaging platform in the mornings. I will also respond to questions about my work: research is a very friendly environment, with everyone bringing different skills and knowledge to the table.
Some of the experiments I run take hours or even days to complete. This can sound annoying, but it is actually good as I can then forget about it and do other work while waiting for it to finish. Usually, I will go back to the office and do some coding, or catch up on my emails. Sometimes I even have the time to go play some music or sports for a short time!
I don’t have a fixed time at which I go home. Instead, I will stay in the lab until I feel I have achieved a good amount of work for the day. However, I try to always leave before 6pm.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I recently helped out at the Portslade Science Fair and found the whole experience delightful. More importantly, I think the children were really engaged: they were certainly asking very pertinent and deep questions!
The prize money would certainly enable many more of these to happen, perhaps we could also bring these fairs to schools, where we could leverage the expertise and experience of the teachers as well, and perhaps provide a more interactive alternative to traditional classroom work.
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Education:
I went to primary school in Southampton, but then moved to Switzerland when I was 10. So I completed most of my school years in Geneva.
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Qualifications:
As I went to school in Switzerland, I obtained my Swiss Maturité (equivalent to A-levels) at 19 years old.
I then went to university in York on the Integrated Masters course and graduated last year with an MPhys.
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Work History:
I went straight from school to university to my PhD.
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Current Job:
I am now entering my 2nd year as a PhD researcher at the University of Sussex.
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Employer:
University of Sussex / STFC (Science and Technology Funding Council) / UKRI (UK Research and Innovation)
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
loves cool physics
What did you want to be after you left school?
A secondary school maths/physics teacher.
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Not very often!
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
I would be a teacher, either in maths or physics.
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Billy Joel.
What's your favourite food?
A Greek gyros.
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
1. I wish I was a billionaire (I would spend a lot of that money on research!), 2. I wish I could play as a soloist with an orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, 3. I wish I could fly!
Tell us a joke.
Why can't you trust an atom? Because they make up everything!
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