Photo Credit: Samantha D’Anna, LLC
Derby name: Higgs Bosom
Number: 0.734
Derby Nickname: Higgs
Significance of name/number: I am a nuclear/particle physicist. My name is a pun on the “Higgs boson,” a fundamental particle in high-energy physics. My jersey number is the energy of a special nuclear resonance state that was the subject of my PhD work.
Derbyversary: June 2021
Favorite Derby Position: PBJ. Just put me on the track, coach!
Favorite Food: The hot and sour soup from Kung Food Chu’s AmerAsia.
Pre-game song: The Rainbow Road theme from Mario Kart Double Dash
Why derby? One of the coaches made the observation that people seem to find derby during periods of transition in their lives, and I guess the same is true for me. As I was finishing up a grueling 7-year graduate program and looking for what would come next, I found myself wondering: “hmm….now that I’m done with grad school, what *else* can hurt me?” So I traded in my dissertation for a full-contact sport! 😉