Everything started in January 1980 in Thessaloniki, the most beautiful Greek city! I also grew up there and in 1999 I entered the Physics Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki from which I graduated in 2005. My diploma thesis was on Artificial Neural Networks and their Applications with prof. C. Eleftheriadis as my advisor.
In July 2005 I was admitted at the Physics Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a PhD. There, I worked with the CMS group, on physics analyses and also working on hardware and software, as part of my involvement with the Level-1 Regional Calorimeter Trigger of the CMS experiment. In January 2008 I moved at CERN, to finish my thesis research and do my part in starting up the greatest particle physics experiment ever: the Large Hadron Collider. In August 2011 I defended my PhD thesis titled “Jets produced in association with Z-bosons in CMS at the LHC” and from January 2012 until November 2013 I was a CERN fellow, working on the design of the LAGUNA-LBNO neutrino beamline study. December 2013 marked my return to CMS; I currently work here as a software developer for the Level-1 Trigger project.
My interests extend from software programming to computer hardware and pretty much any kind of new technologies, to particle physics, artificial intelligence and chaotic systems (beloved adolescence topics). Friends tend to treat me as a computer geek; I just know that I loved these devil machines since I was a kid; my first computer was an Amstrad CPC6128 and I still love tinkering with anything that I can (or are allowed to) put my hands on.
Science outreach and spreading the goodness of particle physics to the public is a personal passion. Since 2009, I have been an official CERN guide showing visitors around CERN’s surface and underground open itineraries as well as giving introductory seminars. On August 2008 I created the CMS Facebook page which I maintained until May 2011 and recently got involved as an tutor at CERN’s S’cool lab. Meanwhile, I try find time to participate in any big outreach event happening at CERN, like the CERN Open Days 2013 and the 2014 “Le CERN et ses voisins” event where I was underground facilities guide. I am a member of the CMS Outreach team as a guide for group visits at CMS but also for a guide for Virtual Visits at the CMS experiment. I have also been a volunteer coordinator for the 2015 and 2016 editions of TEDxCERN. I was also the audience award winner of CERN’s FameLab in 2015!
My hobbies include reading (Umberto Eco, Douglas Adams, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett go to the top of my favorite writers list), listening to music (mostly rock of any kind and era), cooking and digital photography. I recently took upon a new quest: try to learn how to play the guitar. This is harder that I thought, but I am not giving up until I learn or someone breaks my Epiphone Les Paul on my head 🙂
You can also find here:
- my statement of purpose when I was entering the PhD program of UW-Madison
- My Curriculum Vitae
You can contact me by email at: christos.lazaridis at gmail.com
Or, if you are a twitter person, I am occasionally tweeting here.
christos :: webhome 