Name: Andrea Caputo
Current position: Postdoc
Affiliation: CERN
Field of research: Dark Matter direct and indirect detection, particle physics in stars, collider physics
What is your career trajectory to date?
I graduated in Theoretical Physics from University of Rome La Sapienza in 2016. After that I moved to Valencia for my PhD with Prof. Pilar Hernandez, within the ITN European Network Elusives. I then held a postdoc position for 2 years (2020-2022) at Tel Aviv University and Weizmann, in Israel, and I am now since November 2022 a Senior Postdoc at CERN-TH.
What are the most exciting open questions in your research area?
The most exciting question for me is: what is dark matter? This is the questions which drives my work, the fact we do not understand 80% of the matter in the universe drives me crazy.
What do you like and dislike about being a scientist?
I like the possibility to work on fundamental questions and do what I like, including hard core computations, and to think a lot. I also love to travel to present my research and to chat with smart, stimulating people all over the world. There is nothing I particularly dislike, I think it's a wonderful job.
What advances or new results are you excited about or looking forward to?
I am looking forward for the data of missions such as SKA, SPHEREx, Athena for the indirect detection of dark matter, as well as new experiments for direct detection to run in the next years, including IAXO and ALPSII.
What’s your favorite food?
Parmigiana di melanzane.
How do you like to relax after a hard day of work?
Gym and football, or just watch a movie or go out with my girlfriend, or friends.
Do you have any non-physics interests that you would like to share?
I love working out in the gym and play football.
If you were not a scientist, what do you think you would be doing?
A consultant in some strategic company.
What do you hope to see accomplished scientifically in the next 50 years?
Finding axion dark matter both in the sky and in the lab.