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Helio Takai in the MARIACHI lab

First the official stuff
"Senior scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory and faculty member of the Stony Brook University Physics Department, developed the concept of MARIACHI. He has a PhD in Nuclear Physics, and is co-Convener of the ATLAS experiment Heavy Ion Physics group and member of ATLAS physics coordination. He has been a QuarkNet Mentor since 1999 and is a mentor for the Laboratory Science Teacher Development program. He teaches PHY579 - Special Topics for Physics Teachers - at Stony Brook."

On a lighter note:
I was born and raised in Brazil but I am a resident of Long Island, NY for many years. In the local dialect Long Island sounds like (Lawn-GUY-land). In my early days of high school I wanted to become an Electrical Technician, but it became clear that I would not be able to get my ray gun and do time travel. That led to a career change to physics. Nuclear Physics was my first subject of study academically speaking. Later I evolved into particle physics which is a trully fascinating subject to study. Translating - I haven been scattering particles, including X-rays, my whole scientific career.

Right... the only thing I've never done is neutron scattering but there is time. I have met many physicists over the years and still keep contact with many of them.

There is an interesting fact about my colleagues. Besides being a bunch of dorks, when it comes to dining there is an inverse relationship between the energy they do their work and cost of dining. Low energy nuclear physicists for example, treat themselves well with nice dinners and good wine. High energy physicists on the other hand frquently go to chinese restaurants!

Helio in Montreux

I like to travel and learn about other cultures. So far I've been very fortunate to combine my travels with science presentations, although my friends tell me not to mix pleasure with business. I don't think this observation applies to this particular case. I've been to many places and interacted with many people. The one thing that I've learned is that Earthlings are all the same. If I could mathematically describe this, I would say we are 99% similar to each other. The 1% is what make us different. 2005 is my absolute record for travel - it is the year I crossed the equator about 30 times - OK.. I cheated. We took a car and drove around this round about in Kissumu, Kenya where the equator passes. It was the year that I did North America, South America, Europe and Africa. Fascinating places and people!

The Computing Stuff

For many years I've been an avid Linux user and a big fan of open sourced software. My first linux install was in 1994 using 50 floppy disks. However, I must confess though, that I like my MAC a lot, mostly because it looks cool. I am a great admirer of people such as Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernigham for their pioneer work on Unix and C programming language. I also think that the work of Don Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming should be a mandatory reading for computer fans. A lighter reading but equally good is The Practice of Programming by B. Kernigham and Rob Pike.

• http://astro.u-strasbg.fr/~fmurtagh/mda-sw/
• http://www.salon.com/books/int/2007/02/03/leonard/?source=rss
• http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.9662

Things I like

The Best Movies: Dersu Uzala (Kurozawa) and Casablanca
Music: French: Françoise Hardy(oldies) and Patricia Kaas (Pop). Japanese: Yes, I like Enka. Yashiro Aki and Fuji Ayako. Brazilian: Vinicius, Elis, Betânia, and Olodum. Opera: Die Walküre. Anglophone: The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Queen, Eagles, Dixie Chicks.
Cartoons: Tintin, Asterix, Mafalda, A Turma da Monica.

Links

1. The Photo album with pictures of people in MARIACHI.
2. Quarknet 2006 Workshop
3. I am working on Electronics 101 page
4. The hex color wheel.

Contact　高井 えりお　at takai-at-bnl-dot-gov

Get to BNL Physics Department.