Our speaker for the event was, Prof. Lena Funcke from the University of Bonn, who gave a talk about new models and methods for particle physics. She has recently become a junior professor and hence she also talked to us about her journey, starting from Ph.D. to post-doc and then to a professor, as a woman in the field.
The title of the talk was, “New Models and Methods for Particle Physics: from Monte Carlo Simulations to Quantum Computing”. The motivation started from some open essential questions from the Standard Model, such as: Why do neutrinos have masses? Why is there more matter than antimatter in the Universe? And why does the strong force, which glues quarks into protons and neutrons, not distinguish between matter and antimatter? She went on to discuss new interdisciplinary avenues to address these challenges. Starting from conventional Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, we learned about novel methods from deep learning, tensor networks, and quantum computing to tackle problems of the Standard Model. She also talked about a new model beyond the Standard Model, which proposes a joint solution for neutrino masses and the strong CP problem and finally the implications of the methods and models for experiments like ALICE, IceCube, and Euclid. It was fascinating to see the combination of computational methods and particle physics which also led to a good discussion in the end.
After the talk, the discussion shifted towards being a woman in academia and her experiences. There were many interesting questions from the audience about how she balances her time between research and teaching, how she gets new ideas and her journey overall. She talked openly about her days as a student and as a Post-Doc. She emphasised the importance of mental health and the importance of being confident and curious. It was inspiring for all of us to listen to a story driven by grit and determination and ask anything on our minds over some delicious cake!
As one of the saying goes, "We only learn when things when we ask questions". She encouraged us to be brave enough to ask questions. We also learnt from her that the transition from a Post-Doc to a Professor often comes with a lot more responsibilities related to teaching, management and, of course, writing proposals.
All in all, the discussion led to new insights and information about the world of academia. We are very grateful to Prof. Funcke for taking out the time for us, giving us a fresh perspective and answering all our questions.