String theory soon became his lifelong companion. And, along with it, ignorance, which Luis, a theoretical physicist, learned to live with long ago. Maybe that is why he is not worried about not knowing the answer to who are you.
At 65, Luis is the director of the Simon Center for Geometry and Physics (SCGP), in Stony Brook University, where Luis got his PhD in 1981. He had studied Physics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, where he was born and raised.
But Luis left the Spanish capital when he was only 23 years old, and he became one of those uprooted people who do not belong anywhere. He crossed the pond to New York and, without knowing it, he opened a circle that tons of years later he himself would close. But before all this happened, Luis worked as a junior fellow at Harvard University, then joined the faculty and later became full Professor at Boston University. It was in 1988 when he became a CERNie.
Luis was a permanent member of CERN’s theoretical physics unit, and, in his case, permanent means nearly 30 years, that is said quickly. What he misses most from those three decades is the people he met there. It is difficult to explain, without seeming arrogant, how extraordinary CERNies are: they have unusual capabilities and inclinations. Brilliant minds who, like Luis, are not afraid of saying “I just don’t know” or “I don’t know yet”. As Richard Feynman said, they could (and do) “live with doubt, with uncertainty and with the not knowing”.
At CERN, you are surrounded by people with that same mantra, people who are searching for things that they may never find. It is also people who have rare hobbies. For instance, lately, Luis tries to redo the proof of Gödel’s theorem about the incompleteness of mathematics. As he says, in his profession, most of them are pretty weird (but pretty nice weirdos).
That is why Luis considers CERN as the nerdvana. There is the nirvana of Buddhists, but for the physicists CERN is the nerdvana, where they are all accepted for what they are.
Luis plays the piano too, and he loves reading: music, literature, essays, books about art, maths, physics… with which to refresh his inner library. He is currently reading Exploring the Invisible: Art, Science, and the Spiritual, by Lynn Gamwell. A more than a kilo book located in the intersection between art, science and philosophy, whose foreword was written by Neil deGrasse Tyson. This American scientific disseminator once said that “creativity is seeing what everyone else sees, but coming up with a new thought that has never been thought of before and expressing it in some way”. And this can be applied to Luis, who has been pursuing the string theory for years and years.
What makes string theory interesting is that it opens many gates. Over the last many years, it has generated an enormous amount of new concepts, tools and methodology that have enriched particle physics and quantum theory enormously, and also mathematics. The mathematics with which the pre-Socratic philosophers already elaborated their theories on the nature of reality. That nature which, in Luis’ words, is the oracle of science.
Despite this eclectic community, growing old at CERN is not simple nor appealing. Whether you want it or not, at a certain age you are forced to retire, and Luis did not feel like it, so he decided to reinvent himself. On 1st September 2016, he closed a personal and professional circle: he accepted a new project at Stony Brook and he returned to his, somehow, alma mater.
Although he is in charge of more administration tasks than desired, Luis continues doing quite a bit of research on the things that he likes, and he contributes to build the Simon Center, which is still two-thirds of its capacity. To complete it is a very exciting adventure for Luis. As Miguel de Unamuno wrote in Niebla, “el sendero nos lo hacemos con los pies según caminamos, a la aventura”. Sometimes it is also more exhilarating to be on the road than to reach your destiny.
As long as this emeritus CERNie feels with a fresh mind and with energy to engage in projects, he will remain on the battlefield. He still has time to open up other circles, and to not follow a boring adult life. He would love to understand what lies behind the cosmological constant and to witness the discovery of dark matter. And, not only to know them, but to be part of the discovery.
He still has time to find out who he is. Perhaps, Luis will always live alongside a silent but enthralling ignorance.