Who am I ?
I used to have a permanent page here titled “About me” (see at the bottom of this page). Stuff I wrote eons ago, outdated and misrepresenting myself a bit. Instead, I decided to put here a few links to personal posts where, along with pictures of me, my family, and the like, you can get to know something more about me, if you really, really need to. In reverse chronological order, updated on June 27, 2007.
Oh, and – before going to the list: you can see a video of me talking about the Higgs search in CDF in the old quantum diaries site.
- “A small Peter Woit?” contains a description of myself -not too friendly, to be sure- by Lubos Motl, string theorist at Harvard.
- “The frequent traveler” is just a picture of Filippo and a short description of our recent trip to Paris. For that also see Father and son in Paris.
- “Hadron decay 01” shows a couple of pictures of a recent attempt at modeling clay.
- If you want to read me calling myself an incompetent, read “Idiot’s guide to handling a multi-million-dollar experiment”.
- More incompetence in “Will 4.5 amps do?”.
- Still more criticism in “The pains of representing a collaboration”.
- A picture and something about my sporting attitudes in “The jump” .
- My bridge skills – totally related to fluctuations of the cards I get dealt – in “Wow hand” .
- Something about my activities as an amateur astronomer at “A wonderful observing session”.
- My publication rating in “My h-index: 33”.
- A slideshow of my trip to Mexico! in “Mexico slideshow”.
- A sentimental post about the love story of my life in “22 years”.
- Something about my recent work on the Z->bb signal in “Just blessed!”.
- Some pictures of the detector I contributed building in “A few pictures of the CMX muon system”.
- A picture of me with James Bjorken can be found here.
- A post I wrote at Sabine Hossenfelder’s Backreaction about myself is here.
- A recollection of a vacation to Paris as a kid: “A trip to Paris in 1977”.
- Some pictures of a recent chess match: “Chess match tonight”.
- A pic of myself as Scientific Coordinator in the CDF control room here.
To be continued with older posts as I find the time….
Below, the old “About me” page… Temporarily here until I find a better place to store it.
I was born on February 5th, 1966 in Venice, Italy. I have two brothers, Paolo and Martino. I have always lived in Venice, apart from a two-year parenthesis when I had a position of Post-doctoral Fellow in Particle Physics at Harvard University, and contributed to the construction of the new CDF II detector.
I married Mariarosa in 1998 and we have two kids, Filippo (8) and Ilaria (4). We live in Venice, where we finished remodeling our new house in September 2005. We are quite happy about our place, although living in Venice is tough!I am currently a INFN research scientist working at the University of Padova. I had my secondary studies at the Liceo Scientifico “F.Severi” in the Lido di Venezia between 1979 and 1984. In the meantime I also studied at the Venice Conservatory “B.Marcello”, where I became a Master of Antique Instruments in 1982. There I studied composition for four years, too; but I then quit to study physics.I studied at the University of Padova, where I specialized in experimental particle physics. I graduated on June 16th, 1995, with a thesis titled “The Search for Top Quark in the All-Hadronic Decay with the CDF Experiment “. With the CDF-Padova group we indeed found a signal for the difficult decay mode of top-antitop pairs into six hadronic jets, and published our results on Physics Review Letters (“First Observation of the All Hadronic Decay of T Anti-T Pairs“, PRL 79 (1997), 1992-1997). You can find a postscript version of the paper here.I did my Ph.D. research on the search for Z boson decays to b quark pairs, which are very hard to detect in proton-antiproton collisions (in fact nobody had seen that signature before). I found a signal which was approved by the CDF collaboration on June 18th, 1998.
I defended my Ph.D. thesis in Padova on February 9th, 1999. You can get your copy of the thesis here (13.7 Mbytes, 200 pages in postscript).
Later, I worked for Harvard University in 1999-2000, when I constructed part of the CDF II muon system (the CMX detector extension): in the picture on the left you can see me in front of one of the modules being assembled. From 2001 I was in Padova again, where I got a string of 2-years positions and then I won a position as researcher with INFN in the fall of 2005. I am currently a member of the CDF and CMS collaborations, but most of my research time in 2007 is devoted to CMS.
Apart from physics, my interests are chess, astronomy, and mineralogy. I am fond of climbing and playing tennis. Other than chess, I like many games, especially gambling ones: poker and blackjack, but bridge has also become a new discovery ground for me lately.
I enjoy to play both classical and pop/rock music on the piano: songs of Billy Joel, Elton John, Paolo Conte, and many others, but also Beethoven and Chopin. The latest thing I’ve been studying seriously is the third movement of Beethoven’s “Appassionata”. Wow, that is tough.
My plans for the future ? I have no plans but being happy.
A Quantum Diaries Survivor 
well that sounds like a good plan to me. to be happy for a reason, another form of misery to be happy for no reason? bliss.
nice site thanx : )
hello.
-sending along a free sentence from SentenceGallery [book: s1000]
“the syntactical morphology of the soul”
The career of the soul glints and follows the shape of an animal’s back. it is hooved, serene, and stipulates to any number of unspecified outcomes.
yours in tonality,
jon b
You are certainly one of the brightest on the planet! I greatly admire your blog and even though I have a new theory that says that you are best Science Establishment Crackpot on the internet, I wish you the very best that final Establishment Busting Truth will allow! When you get bored of The House of Fun & Mirrors Science Establisment visit http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hall/2638/
Frank Morgan of Newhall, CA USA
Jon, nice quote.
Frank, maybe I am a crackpot and maybe I am not, but I certainly am not one of the brightest ones 🙂
Cheers,
T.
I just finished the NYT piece which, thankfully, brought me to your site. I want no money but would like to know if anyone is needing any help in the installation of Collider’s?
Can you direct me to a page that will in the simplest of terms explain everything in the NYT article?
Thank You
C. Webster Rose
I’m glad to have found your blog! I got it from an article on Richard Dawkins.net. http://richarddawkins.net/article,1452,At-Fermilab-the-Race-Is-on-for-the-God-Particle,Dennis-Overbye
I’ve always had an interest in the mechanics of physics, (who builds all that equipment) and thought it was a very interesting line of work. I am at present sitting in (via realPlayer) on some physics classes at UC Berkeley with prof Richard Muller.
Dear CWR, I think you can find lots of stuff about what is in the article by Dennis Overbye by just reading the contents of my “Higgs search” page and links therein.
Russ, thank you for visiting. Keep studying physics, if you feel attracted to it you won’t be disappointed.
Cheers,
T.
Hello this is Jason D. Padgett again, I posted my email at the site where I originally wrote my message to you. I wrote a quick explanation there. I’m still a student so I can’t descibe it all perfectly in equation but I can show you exactly with my diagrams and a graphing calculator how my theory works. If you would like to see my drawing of fractals or challange me to draw a fractal of something please email me at jasonquantum1@yahoo.com. Have a great day.
Sincerely,
Jason D. Padgett
Hi,
How are you and your family?
My name is Susaye I am a student. I am beginning to start studying again after about 8 years its just not clicking right I feel very dumb. I have a small dimension problem that I hope you can help me with. I just need you to explain it clearer than my teacher and I can do the rest. I am by far not a genuis but physics was one of my best subjects because I spent most of my time studying it. Please help
my email susaye_small@yahoo.com
Susaye
[…] Tommaso Dorigo is a research scientist at the National Institute of Nuclear Research of Italy, who works at the University of Padova and maintains a prominent blog in English. He is open minded enough to “advocate that doing science does not necessarily require a PhD and a desk in a University office, and that ideas and theories are not crackproof or crackpotty, but just right or wrong” . (In this connection, he had also published in his blog a great story titled Cracked Pots which is well worth reading.) […]
Meno male che qualche cervello rimane (o ritorna?) ancora in Italia e non fuggono tutti in America!
Well done mate!
Ciao Flavia,
grazie della tua visita e del tuo commento… Io sono tornato dagli USA per questioni personali (vivo meglio a Venezia!), ma purtroppo l’offerta, per giovani ricercatori, e’ sempre molto attraente li’.
Ciao
T.
I’m in the midst of talking with Discovery Science about a documentary special on mirror matter, and I’m wondering if you’re interested in participating in some way.
recently I was the creator and executive producer of the pilot of “Wired Science,” a PBS program about science. I also ran the Discovery series “Mythbusters.” years ago I was fortunate enough to journey to Tunguska, and spend the night in Kulik’s cabin, and hike the remote and beautiful terrain.
since then I’ve become aware of the mirror matter theory, and of the theory proposed by some that the Tunguska event may have been caused or trigged by mirror matter. in the past I’ve corresponded with Dr. Robert Foot, who told me he thought it might be possible to recover some particles of mirror matter from Tunguska, and thereby confirm the theory.
my intellectual capabilities do not afford me the luxury of having a worthwhile opinion on the specifics of the physics, but the concepts are fascinating, and serve as a basis and a lens with which to explore and view what strikes me as the edge of our knowledge in this area.
thank you in advance for any time and attention you may wish to give to this proposition.
regards,
Tod Mesirow
Dear Tod,
I answered you privately. I am not an expert on mirror matter theories, but of course I am available to any serious attempt at
discussing physics on media and all outreach ideas and activities I can afford to spend time on.
Best,
T.
thanks for the great blog! although i don’t really understand much about physics (ok, really nothing, i am but an artist) i check back for the little bits that i might understand! i also love astronomy and learning bits about the world around us. (my recent fascination is dark matter mostly because i can’t seem to wrap my head around it.) i especially enjoyed your post about your father (as you noticed in my own post). Thank you!
Hello Andomeda,
you are welcome, and welcome here too. You can find some information on dark matter and astronomy here, scattered around in the last three years of blogging…
Cheers,
T.
Bella foto!!! Mi sembri il Sig. Rossi di Bruno Bozzetto.
Comunque sfruttare il blog per cuccare pollastre (anche straniere) è vergognoso.
E poi sarai anche un fisico ma non c’hai il fisico.
E chi sei, fantomatico amico di una volta ???
E come dovrei cuccarle le pollastre ?
Comunque a bientot
T.
Hi,
Thought you might find this useful:
http://bpr3.org/?page_id=56
Tommaso ma l’esperimento di Arata sulla fusione fredda ha veramento dato esito poistivo o no?
Tu cosa pensi ci riservi il futuro in questo campo? Possiamo sperare?
Buone vacanze.
Sempre l’amico chissa’ chi sei,
I know zero about Arata’s experiment. What I know is that it is hard to extract blood out of a lemon.
My personal feeling is that fusion can only happen in very dense materials. How the hell this is achieved with current methods I can’t figure.
Cheers,
T.
What is your opinion about this thread??
http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=34397
Cavoli…ne hai fatta di strada dai tempi di Amanda, Barbara, Clotilde, Desdemona, Elga, Fiona, Greta……..
P.S. non sono io “l’amico di una volta…”…tengo a precisarlo….
Yuri, I think it is numerology, and like all numerology attempts, they are nice, but until they make predictions which are verified after the fact, and have a zero% chance of being true by random accident, they remain a rather clueless deviation from science.
Cheers,
T.
Ciao Giulio,
yes, I remember the photomultipliers for our muon decay experiment. I have written a post about it: see here and here.
Cheers,
T.
Oh man, I am so jealous of your work (I adore particle physics but don’t think I’m capable of making a career out of it, that being said I love reading about it). But it is really exciting to find a blog such as this, I am very glad to have stumbled here.
-Rhea
I think you are a little busy at the moment. For a quieter time, could you possibly point me to a site that compares the Higgs with the (postulated by some) graviton. Both are bosons, both involve mass in some way, right? Are they from competing theories of Everything?
Molto grazie!
Jim
USA
Hello Rhea,
thanks and welcome. I hope you will be able to read interesting stuff here.
Hello Jim,
hmmm higgs vs graviton. Yes, both are bosons. The graviton is a spin-two particle, the higgs has spin-zero. This has some consequences. The Higgs “gives mass” to other elementary particles by coupling to them in proportion to their mass (squared), the graviton is suggested to carry the gravitational force – which depends on the mass. They are not competing, they might one day fit both in the same theory. Only, the Higgs is already almost established (we will be surprised not to see it, with the mass we think it has); the graviton is a bit less clear business right now.
I am unable to point to anything particular about this right now, but let me think about it. If I forget to answer, please don’t hesitate to insist.
Cheers,
T.
why your posts are not printer friendly? i like them a lot… especially if i can read them on the metro going home. it’s a real pity. I can read always just the first page. Ciao
Hi V,
sorry – the format is not decided by myself. I use wordpress for the blog, and theirs is the fault… However if you save the page, I think you can then print it alright. Click on the title of the post (which loads just the post), and then click “save page” on your browser. Then I think it should work it if you printed it.
Cheers,
T.
Yes V its printer friendly
I have been reading about m theory and multidimensions. I find this a very interesting topic. I am trying to visualise what an object might appear like in 3 spacial plus space time plus a 5th dimension. do you believe in this theory? Can you help me to get my head around the extra dimensions?
[…] Who am I ? […]
Hi Paul,
sorry for taking so long to get back to you. No, I do not believe in the theory of extra dimensions -not until I see more evidence of it.
I think your best bet is to read a popularization book that Lisa Randall wrote about it. Search and you’ll find…
Cheers,
T.
Hello Dorigo…I’ll be in Padova soon and would like to meet to ask you some things related to quantum … kindly reply Francesca
Ciao,
I replied by mail, anyway I will be in Padova next week, come when you want.
Cheers,
T.
I did read Lisa Randall’s book about warping and membranes. I found it very interesting. What is your take on a gravity membrane? She also discussed other dimensions and how K.K. particles would confirm their existence. It all goes back to the L.H.C. I have tried to find info. about it’s next start up attempt. Do you know where I can find info. on this.
Regards , Paul
Hi Paul,
I think it is a rather far-fetched, if imaginative, theory. The LHC might be able to see these particles, or rule them out in a wide mass range. There is a lot of information on the LHC around in the web, but I guess what you want is a book on the possible future discoveries of the LHC, and I am not sure there is anything that suits you. If you hang around this blog, however, you will read things about this (or just look at the “LHC” or the “CMS” tags in the tag cloud on the right).
Cheers,
T.
Hi Tommaso,
I may have found an error in your “Ten photons per hour” calculations.
I believe it occurred where you converted the Sun’s output, 2.5E21 visible quanta per m**2 to the 20 mm**2 pupil, which is equivalent to 2E-5 m**2.
Your conversion was2E-7 m**2. Therefore your final results were too low by two magnitudes.
Thank you for a fine blog. I especially learned from the “physics made easy” section.
mike
Wow, thank you! That’s a good demonstration that calculating by heart is dangerous. So it’s about one tenth of a photon per second with unaided eye, and a thousand with the instrument. Hmm. This does change some of my conclusions. I think I will add a comment to the post too.
T.
I like your plans!!!!
I’ve been reading you blog and I just wanted to let you know the 2009 U.S. Chess Championship is coming up! It is May 7-17 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center in of St. Louis.
The nation’s top 24 players will seek to steal take the title from last years year’s winner Yury Shulman–including the top 12 American players by rating, the 2008 U.S. Junior Closed Champion, the 2008 U.S. Open Champion and the 2009 U.S. State Champion of Champions. Not to mention, over $200,000 in prizes are on the table!
Anyway, here is a link to the media kit: http://www.saintlouischessclub.org/US-Championship-2009. And Also, here is a link to the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis website: http://www.saintlouischessclub.org, where you can RSVP for the free tickets. This website will also provide daily coverage! And both have player bios, chess facts, tournament history, etc.
Just figured you and your blog readers would love to know about all this as fellow chess buffs!
Let me know if you can help me get the word out!
Hello! I was wondering: are you going to be covering the upcoming chess tournament in St. Louis?
Hello Thomasso-
If you do more testing on protons, you will find that they can be “split”
into photon groupings. The number of photons in a “group” will signify the type of lesser particle resulting I.E. Quark, Meson, etc.
But the really beautiful thing is, you can re-assemble photons back into protons. Email me for details (How many Chess games have you won ?)alfredschrader@aol.com
Oh, and if you are looking for the Graviton Particle, I’ve already got it. Alfred
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[…] the elusive Higgs boson finally be in sight? On his blog, physicist Tommaso Dorigo of the University of Padua writes about talk of a tentative hint of the Higgs at the Tevatron, a […]
Hey!
I am a graduate experimental physics student from Greece.
I am currently trying to comprehend the Initial State Radiation at ee colliders. My question is this: How does one measure the beam energy at an ee collider (eg. LEP) using the radiative return Z peak?
What is the method?
To me, one should use the WW threshold as an indicator but I have not worked that out thoroughly..
Thanx!
Manos
[…] the elusive Higgs boson finally be in sight? On his blog, physicist Tommaso Dorigo of the University of Padua writes about talk of a tentative hint of the Higgs at the Tevatron, a […]
Hi Peter – Your blog article “My H-index: 33” inspired us to write our first blog article (ever-ever)! We just wanted to thank you and share our blog THE INCENTIVE (www.theincentive.eu): it reflects upon the dynamics of the academic publishing industry and the purpose of research as a whole. – Laure, Lukas and Max
Hi Tommaso,
It looks like you closed the comments on the LHCb PENTAQUARK. I have recently written a paper showing that it is, indeed, a molecule of ccbar+proton. The paper is named A PRELIMINARY EXPLANATION FOR THE PENTAQUARK FOUND BY LHCb. You can find it in my web page http://www.priomns.com.
Prof. M. E. de Souza
[…] esperimenti e la controprova di più parti e sperimentatori che indagano. Dalle parole di Tommaso Dorigo ho imparato che i fisici sono le persone più scettiche del pianeta, e che ad esempio i […]