The word polymathy refers to wisdom that encompasses knowledge about various fields of science, art or the humanities. A polymath is an individual whose knowledge spans a significant number of subjects. Michele is one of them.

The term was expressed by León Battista Alberti, an Italian Renaissance architect who died in 1472 in Rome, where 488 years later, Michele was born. His family came from northern Italy, but they moved to the capital just before Michele’s birth. That may be why he does not really feel himself as a typical Roman.

On Michele’s night table, there is a tower of books and magazines of all sorts: from astronomy to music, philosophy, bike preparation, sailing, photography and so on.

Professionally, Michele is a mechanical engineer. During his university studies, he was a technical student at CERN and he also got there a Fellowship in 1989. After that, he moved back to Italy, specifically to Frascati, to work at the INFN-LNF on the construction and operation of an accelerator called DAFNE, and where he remained for about seven years.

When he felt that for him the most interesting part of the job was completed, Michele looked for new challenges, and he joined the High Energy Physics Laboratory at Harvard University in Boston (US), where he worked for one CERN experiment proposed by an American collaboration. He did not dislike the idea of remaining in America for a while, but a few months later, he received an offer from CERN to join the LHC construction in the Magnet Group. And, since 1998, Michele is a CERNie.

More than 22 years living in Geneva, which has a good lake, but it has little to do with the sea. Michele loves sailing, but the Lemán is far from the Mediterranean in many aspects, not only in the temperature. He misses sailing to open sea. Also, his big Italian family and the atmosphere of Rome, where you can actually smell the History. The city in which beauty lives on, standing still in time.

To Michele, beauty is something that can not be defined as a general concept because it is too much dependent by personal vision, even by the historical context. He prefers to see beauty as looking at the sources, guided by the characteristics that will provoke specific strong emotional and positive feelings in people. If those feelings are there, whatever reveals them can be considered as beautiful.

Michele’s parents and grandparents used to say that “le vie dell’inferno sono lastricate di buone intenzioni” (the road to hell is paved with good intentions), closely related to this other proverb: “il diavolo è nei dettagli” (the devil is in the details), like in this journalistic profile. Every time he hears them, he suspects again that these sayings are timeless and, the vast majority of the time, right. That is why, perhaps, we should drive to a bit more humility or modest attitude when we dream big. That is Michele’s recommendation.

He wishes that, as an engineer at CERN, he could continue to have interesting jobs, like those that he has been lucky enough to experience so far: he is not someone afraid of changes. In Mémoires d’Hadrien, written by Marguerite Yourcenar in 1951, Hadrien, the emperor of Rome, aged, isolated and with a heart disease, tells to his grandson, the future emperor Marco Aurelio, that his first homelands were books. Michele’s would be his books and magazines.

This Renaissance man, this homo universalis, who dreams of having the time to fully read those magazines, which are like a lighthouse on his night table.

Who am I? Paolo hesitates. This could be the last question of a person’s life. It is still too soon for him to answer it, but he tries. He feels himself a person eager to discover and to learn. This curious 49 years-old Italian engineer is motivated by the fact of seeing (in the broad sense of the term) as many things that are possible.

In 1998, Paolo became a CERNie. During his last year of university, in Turin, he had a 4 months Erasmus experience at the Joint Universities Accelerator School (JUAS). Located in the French Geneva region, and very close to CERN, these seemed to be small clues about Paolo’s future scenarios. At that time, he did not know that he would end up living in that area and, what is more, working at the world’s largest center for scientific research.

The year after he presented his Master final project, he got a fellowship to be part of CERN. Once he got his engineer’s diploma, he got an extra year at CERN and, when the flame of that contract blew out, he had the opportunity to join CERN as staff. It was the time in which the production of the LHC components was, clearly, the CERN strong bet. That time was 1998.

But before moving out to Geneva, where he lives now with his family, and before studying Nuclear Engineering at Turin’s university, Paolo spent his early 19 years in Ivrea. Located in northern Italy, 50 kilometers from the capital city of Piedmont, it is a small town that had its splendor moment with the foundation of Olivetti, a big company which started producing mechanics typewriting machines.

Paolo’s eyes were able to see how this company practically disappeared and how employment opportunities went from a private enterprise factory to municipal utilities, such as the city hospital and the tribunal. These days, he does not miss much from Ivrea, where he can go back, as much as he wants whenever he wants. Paolo is not in the mood for nostalgia.

He is very happy in the peculiar Geneva. Paolo talks about being happy as if it was, in some way, having the feeling that you have been able to accomplish something that makes you feel full, spiritually full. That is why we can experience happiness by sitting alone on a coast of Scotland while contemplating the ocean or by solving technical problems with your work team.

His dreams are simple, but that does not mean his dreams are easy to achieve or that he is not ambitious. The dreams’ staircase of Paolo consists of lots of steps: one with the feeling of having participated in big challenges, another one with the feeling of having contributed to the knowledge of humankind. Another one hosts his personal growth and the acquaintance of new people and more ways of living, and, one of the current last ones (could be called, “the father step”), shelters his kids finding their place in a society on which they feel happy for what they are going to be.

Although, “l’erba del vicino è sempre più verde”, it is important to refocus on ourselves and, instead of complaining about something we are finding outside, trying to understand it and taking action. We should all work on improving ourselves. Paolo does it. He continues facing challenging situations at the professional level and, personally, he walks along without fear at the border of the unknown and the things we can name.

Paolo is a man with the insatiable curiosity of children and cats and the wisdom of the tribal elders. He belongs to the old school on which every day, you learn something. And he is an exemplary student!

In the centre of the capital. At the most crowded and congested spot in town, where people only know the rush and the sky is greyer. “Pongamos que hablo de Madrid”, where Mariam lived until she came to work at CERN in early January 2017.

She studied aeronautical engineering at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, and she also did her Master’s degree in aerospace systems there. Shortly after, she exchanged the crowded streets of the Spanish capital for the peace of mind, the noise of the cars horns for the birds singing. The tiny nature concentrated in the Retiro and Casa de Campo for the immense lac Lemán and the gleaned Jura mountains.

Mariam is so glad with her decision that she hardly misses anything from her city of birth (well, just the people, the food and the sun). She adapted very quickly to this countryside life. Seasonal sports were very helpful: skiing, snowboarding or raquettes during the winter, and cycling, trekking or swimming in spring and summer. Outdoors activities that were unthinkable in Madrid.

Although she does not consider herself a dreamy person, Mariam is content to be as happy as possible every single day of her life, or at least, to try it. But, what makes her happy? To keep growing, personally and professionally, as well as enjoy the little things that happen around her. It does not matter if they are good or bad.

Her parents taught her that “al mal tiempo buena cara”, and it has really helped Mariam at some points in her life. In The Gods themselves, Isaac Asimov wrote that “there are no happy endings in history, only crisis points that pass”. Better to face them with a good attitude, or with our best smile.

Mariam loves science fiction movies and literature: the futuristic landscapes and conspiracies. Although she is not a pure scientist, she is a key part of a huge scientific project because, together with people from other disciplines, engineers at CERN make scientists’ dreams come true, and we all know that “with great power comes great responsibility”.

The needs and the priorities change over the life, and that is why Mariam will redefine her idea and feeling of happiness. Nothing new under the sun: it is not what used to make her happy either that makes her happy now. The Friends, who live in neighbours apartments above Central Perk, know a lot about this, about growing, about life.

Asimov also wrote that “to succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well”. Perhaps, that is why Mariam prefers not to make plans for the future and let herself go. She is not in the past either, not in the mood for nostalgia.

New beautiful people and life experiences will get in her path, and Mariam will always welcome them with open arms and her best smile.

The child that was afraid to forget any of his 60 cousins’ names. The child that saw his grandmother, always saving money for her loved ones’ future. That child was the first one, in the lifetime of the family, to attend university. That child is now a mechanical engineer who works at CERN.

Grão a grão, João is fulfilling his life’s backpack. He is a 27-years-old curious guy, eager to learn as much as possible. He loves to travel and to cook, also Science and History, and all their possible combinations.

He is from Lisbon, onde o mar se acabou e a terra espera. João has always lived in the Portuguese capital, where he studied, both bachelor’s and master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST). He was a very active piece in the student community, participating in a lot of projects and, sometimes, coordinating and organizing them. A master behind the scenes.

Also in Lisbon, João met Kauanna, his girlfriend. They have been living in different countries since he started working at CERN, in October 2017, almost 3 years ago. With no doubt, this is one of the toughest parts of emigration.

That autumn, he moved to Pays de Gex, where he is very happy, working with a united team in Hi-Lumi, which, in his words, is a really fantastic project. As a mechanical engineer, in the not too distant future, he would like to be more connected to product design, closer to the industry.

In his daily adventures, João is surrounded by beauty. He finds it in the shape of fun and excitement. Also, in the variety of cultures and their common points, where we realise that we are not so different from each other.

The birth of the www at CERN or the recent rocket launched by Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, are other examples. It is this type of humanity achievements that João finds beautiful because, to him, beauty is to see that people connected are able to achieve extraordinary objectives.

A goal for us? João does not hesitate: we should improve the life as we know it and leave a mark on humanity. Everything that makes us what we are is up to us. It is up to the environment that we create, the people we surround ourselves with and the ideals that we choose to follow and to pay attention to. Isso nos baste.

João will find his own meaning on life. He will continue to face challenges, increasingly complex. And he will success and overcome them because, as José Saramago would say, sempre chegamos ao sítio aonde nos esperam.