Marisa Sandhoff (Germany)
| Hi! My name is Marisa Sandhoff. I am 26 years old and a PhD student at the University of Wuppertal. |  |
Since a young girl, I have been interested in physics and other natural sciences. At kindergarten I answered "astrophysicist" when asked: What do you want to be when you grow up? Later I read many books and magazines about the 'Big Bang', the evolution of space, and the life and death of stars. Physics lessons during the last few years at school are really interesting. You learn the basics up to the 10th class, and then later cover more exciting fields. For example, I was really astonished that you can measure the teensy mass of an electron just on the teacher's desk!
But after school, I hesitated before deciding to study physics. It was not out of lack of interest, but I had some concerns about finding a job. I did not know what jobs I could do as a physicist, except teach. But I made use of opportunities to speak to physicists during activities at school and university. After that I did not have any doubts any more and knew that being a physicist was exactly the right job for me.
At university you are introduced to many interesting areas of physics, and in the practical courses you perform classic experiments. My diploma thesis (and now PhD) is about experimental high energy physics. This field of study investigates the building blocks of matter. For these investigations, huge particle accelerators and detectors are needed.
The University of Wuppertal participates in the ATLAS experiment using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator at the European institute for Particle Physics (CERN - Geneva, Switzerland). Universities don't have enough money to finance an experiment like this on their own; therefore, huge collaborations are formed between universities all over the world. This is a real advantage, because it means you get to know physicists from different countries and you are almost forced to work with them on joint projects.
There is also a lot of travel involved, for example, to CERN for workshops and to conferences throughout the world. Another very nice point is that in physics you work on top research even as a diploma student.
Of course, like all fields, studying physics for a PhD is a lot of work. But as there is still time for other interests!