I’ve been interested in science and invention for as far back as I can remember. My parents wanted me to have academically-oriented role models, and they got what they wanted. My heroes were Albert Einstein, Marie Curie and Alexander Graham Bell. I wanted to understand the mysteries of the universe and use that create awesome stuff. As I got older, those goals would shift and adjust, but that basic idea was always there. It is for this reason that, when my Alma mater posted a job opening for a software engineer CERN, working for one of the experiments in the biggest particle accelerator in the world, there was no question about: I had to apply.
The opening was for a software developer and operator working for the CMS experiment, one of the two massive collaborations responsible for the discovery of the Higgs Boson in 2012. I would be hired by my university and sent to Switzerland to work on-site alongside physicists and engineers. There were asking for experience with Linux, version control, Python, and relational databases, all of which I had learned to use in the contexts of different passion projects. I sent my CV, had the interviews, got the job. In a matter of 2 weeks, my life had changed for ever. I talked to my then boss and explained I had to quit, had several very emotional farewell parties, and headed on a plane to live abroad for the first time in my life.
I arrived to CERN as in 2019. There I joined the CMS Tier-0 team, a small group of physicist and engineers in charge of operating and maintaining the CMS Tier-0 System (more about it in a moment). I arrived into the Long Shutdown 2 (LS2), a period of 3 4 year dedicated to
2024-09-12
Published on: 2024-09-12
Written by: German Giraldo
