He was just 26 years old when he was given almost 300 meters of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. Now, from the space-time distance, Julio thinks about it and finds it incredible. It really is.
That young electrical engineer, borned and raised in Donostia, where the wind is combed and follows the pintxos’ route, joined CERN in 1996, after finishing his studies. He worked there for seven years, probably, the most important years of his professional career.
Although Julio was very young when he became a CERNie, his supervisors gave him a lot of confidence, which allowed him to take on big projects. From those years, he learned that the main trick was to combine the safety, which comes from experience, with the freshness provided by new ideas. To combine them properly, never stay at one end.
In Julio’s case, life after CERN started when he decided to create his own company: Elytt Energy, specialising in the field of the energy and particles accelerators. With one foot in Madrid (the engineering unit), and one in the Basque Country (the manufacturing unit), they develop high technology projects for clients of the stature of ITER, CIEMAT and CERN, among others.
Julio remembers with emotion how rewarding it was to start his own project from scratch and to see it, some time later, built. He doubts whether there is anything more satisfying than that. And although no project is carried out as in the first design (at least no project that Julio knows of), because there are always inconveniences and setbacks, it is worth throwing yourself into it.
In addition, having your own company means that you are not forced to retire, as long as you can continue to collaborate. Julio does not belong to those who count the days to be retired. On the contrary, he dreams of iron health to keep going to work for many more years.
The difference that Julio most noticed when he founded Elytt Energy was, what he called, “the technical solitude”. At CERN, you have technical support and you are surrounded by people with a lot of experience, but when you walk alone, no one advises you in which direction to go.
You may feel lonely on a boat in the middle of the sea, but on that boat you will be at the helm. As the British mathematician and philosopher, Bertrand Rusell, wrote in 1945 in what is now Julio’s favourite book, A History of Western Philosophy, “conquering fear is the beginning of wealth”, not only in economic terms. It is also very rewarding to create a small ecosystem with people who work on these kinds of technologies that will accompany you on every adventure. We are never really alone.
Julio just wants his company to keep growing: to carry out challenging national and international projects and to develop the technologies needed. And meanwhile, to continue to be a happy man that, in Russell’s words, “is the one who is free in his affections and has broad interests”.
Julio says he is more of a thinker than a creator. Also, that he is not able to draw a horse that looks like a horse or a flower that looks like a flower. But there they are: his 300 meters of magnets are still standing at the LHC.