“Our primary objective is to understand the underlying physics of the world. This could lead us to some discoveries one day but right now…this is impossible to predict”
Nazar hails from Kyiv, Ukraine, and left his country around twelve years ago to pursue his career in physics that studied both in his bachelor’s and master’s degree. Because of a limited amount of fundings available for research, Ukrainians always used to focus on fields related to theoretical physics, like mathematics or data analysis, leaving underrepresented those that, instead, need well-equipped laboratories and expensive instruments. These are produced in Western countries, and it was right in Germany that he was invited for an internship during his master. As a post-Soviet country, an important cornerstone with which Nazar’s generation, and especially his parents one, grew up with, is the victory against nazism and fascism and the defeat of Germany. Nevertheless, “they ended up being much richer and developed than us, the winners”. Moving to Hamburg with his family was for Nazar a real cultural shock. The difference in the standards of living was visible, the sidewalks were perfectly aligned, buses were always on time, to move around with a stroller was very easy and people used to stand in a queue without arguing with each other. “It was like a computer game to me, as it could not be so perfect. But it was”. In 2011, in the same laboratory, he also started his PhD. He worked for the Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY) and once the contract ended, he could not renew it. Short-term contracts are a widespread problem within the academic environment and in the nuclear physics community, it is common to have a lot of experience in many different places.
“This professional exchange is good for some time but then, eventually, you want to settle down. And as a young family, to have a longer-term perspective was critical”.
Nazar decided to proceed his professional career with a Postdoc in Turin, Italy, a city they chose primarily because of the weather and as it looked very nice in photos. Here he earned a specific INFN fellowship for foreigners, a very good contract that ended a year later. But in Italy, according to Nazar, if you work well and the group is satisfied with you, they manage – within the regulations – to make it possible for you to stay. And this, it is his tenth here in Italy.
Nevertheless, if in Hamburg there was an international office that took care of his residence permit, in Italy he had to face a system that is very slow and full of obstacles. Nazar had to wait almost seven months to obtain his resident permit and even more to open a bank account and finally receive his salary. The residency permit’s validity depends on the contract length and until recently his fixed-term contract made him ineligible for a long-term permit, despite living in Italy long enough to qualify. And, if he ever decides to change his job, he will need to change his residence permit as well. Another thing he was shocked about is how hard it is to look for an apartment and the need to have a guarantor. As an adult with a family and a job, this aspect made him tremendously nervous and he also felt some biases while looking for a house, most likely related to prejudices related to his origins.
In both his PhD and Postdoc his main topic has been fundamental high energy physics. He specifically works on the statistical analysis of data generated by proton-proton collisions at one of the two main experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
“Our primary objective is to understand the underlying physics of the world. This could lead us to some discoveries one day but right now, whether it will have any practical implication, is impossible to predict”.
In Turin he participated in smaller and interdisciplinary projects that allowed him to work more in the laboratory, testing hardware and developing software and data acquisition systems. He had the chance to work also at the National Centre of Oncological Hydrotherapy (CNAO) in Pavia where – at night, when the equipment is not used for patients – they tested the detectors of secondary radiations produced during the hadron therapy sessions. Nazar enjoyed working in smaller-scale groups as he could see his contribution. At the moment, he is working on simulations of a future detector for a project called “Muon Collider” which was born in Italy and became an international collaboration. Moreover, what surprised him the most in Italy, is the presence of many women in science especially if compared to other countries. In his work Nazar values precision and efficiency and he has recently realized that these aspects, together with having high standards of oneself are distinctive Ukrainian traits. Ukrainians tend to be always very good in what they do and also very direct and conflicting. If you annoy someone, you can easily get in trouble and people always look around trying not to cause problems to others, something he has not seen in Italy.
“In Ukraine there would be a fight every five metres because of how people park, drive and signal. This latter would be considered very aggressive”.
On the contrary, what he was amazed by in Italy is the non-conflictual character of people. Before, “I didn’t know that you could react stepping away instead of reacting aggressively” and in the years he became more social and open, a change he considers essential to survive in Italy. In Nazar’s opinion, Turin is a city made for students and not for families as it has been a nightmare to move around with a stroller not finding shopping malls that in Ukraine, instead, are very common. Even if he likes Italian food and has a particular love for tiramisù, he particularly misses Ukrainian dishes, together with living winters in villages where everything is covered by the snow, and you can hear that frosty sound that it makes when you walk on it or on frozen ponds.
Nazar used to go back to his country each year but right now, it’s been three years since he last went back, and he does not know whether he will ever return. The day the war began was a shock. As the years of war pass by, people have changed together with the context they live in and the things they talk about. With time he feels always more disconnected from more contexts.
“I have less and less reasons to call myself a true Ukrainian anymore…my Ukrainian side is frozen in time”.
Nazar goes on with his life here, teaching his daughters how to behave in the society without being in the way of others. As it would be done in Ukraine.