We had to understand things like why the top quark was so heavy and the electron is so light. The Higgs is a big, important step.

In the big experiments, Atlas and CMS, we have something like 3,000 scientists each, and over 60 nationalities.

I like manual things, doing things with my hands, the feeling of touching.

Like in nature, I like things which are based on a few simple principles, even though their manifestation can be very rich.

The top quark was discovered in 1995, and since then, the Higgs has become our obsession because the standard model was incomplete without it.

From a scientific point of view, our mission is to seek answers to the fundamental questions about the universe. Many are open - we don't know about dark matter, which accounts for a quarter of the universe's matter, nor do we know why there's antimatter.