Weina Ji
The prospect of a life full of challenges is what brought Weina Ji to study physics at the University of Nanjing, in China. However besides the intellectual stimulation that physics provides, she also describes the field as 'useful'. "The logic that you develop while learning physics can also be applied outside this particular world if later on you don't continue in this career," she says.
Having finished her physics degree, Weina is now a graduate student at the department of high energy physics at Lund University in Sweden. Her PhD thesis involves research for various projects within the ATLAS collaboration.
When she learnt about CERN as an undergraduate student, Weina was immediately drawn to its impressive international network. The desire to, at some point, take part in this world-wide effort is what brought Weina all the way from China to Sweden: "Being based at Lund offered me the chance to be closer to the construction of the Large Hadron Collider and the experiments, such as the ATLAS detector," she says.
Initially, moving from a large city in China to a small city in Sweden was a big change for Weina. But she adapted fast to her new home thanks to the friends she made with her international colleagues, and also among the Chinese community in Lund. “It’s easier to get over feelings of missing home with the good friends I have here,” she says. Weina and her parents also found the way to stay very close thanks to the new technologies: “We do video-conferences every week, as I see their faces, it helps me not to miss them as much as if I could not see them at all.”
She also has some other personal strategies for fighting homesickness, such as reading as much Chinese literature as she can. “My favourite books are the classics,” she says. One of her favourites books is the “Dream of the Red Chamber” regarded as one of the masterpieces of Chinese fiction, composed sometime in the middle of the 18th century.
Another challenge she had to overcome when she just arrived to Europe was the English language barrier: “It took several months before I started to feel comfortable speaking in English,” she remembers. “I really appreciate the help that my colleagues offered me on this front” In spite of all the effort that living so far from her hometown mean, she truly enjoys her life in Lund, particularly the summer time. She feels her life would not be the same without music though “Listening to music keeps me in good mood,” she says.
Weina is also finding her PhD in particle physics very stimulating: "Everything unknown is attractive, and I feel I'm learning new things every day," she says. For her, particle physics is an adventure of exploration and discovery “Like astrophysicists explore the Universe, particle physicists explore the basic constituents of Nature,” she says.
Weina is looking forward to seeing the LHC working. “We have been preparing for a long time now, I really want to see the real data,” she says. “I also need this data for my thesis. In general, the work what I am doing needs to be tested by real data.
Weina’s advice for those who want to embark on a career in physics is clear: “You have to work hard,” she says. “But also, you have to be optimistic. Maybe you encounter a problem during your research, but you have to keep on going,” Weina adds, with a smile. When asked about her future plans, she does not hesitate: “I’d like to continue in this field, if there is any possibility, I’d like to work at CERN and ATLAS.”
Cristina Jimenez
