ÇEVRE HIGHLIGHTS - 24.SAYI

36 HAZ ø RAN 2023 Interview with Prof.Dr. Serkant Ali Çetin 1. Could you tell us about your journey to become a physicist? I realized too late that I wanted to be a physicist. Right after high school. I was not born with a burning interest in physics or a love of science. But I still enjoyed math, physics, chemistry, and biology. I had a knack for numbers. I struggled with social studies because I had poor memorization skills. Back then, we had to memorize in these lessons. Then, around 3rd grade at high school, when I was considering what to study and deciding on a field for university, engineering was the first thing that came to mind. I wanted to be an industrial engineer, but it was a very high-scoring department, and I didn’t have enough points for it. Then I realized I had no idea what this field was. What is the function of industrial engineering? Then I asked myself, “Let me choose something I like in the courses I’m taking now that I can do for the rest of my life.” There, I discovered that I enjoyed physics and even solved questions outside of homework in my spare time. I liked math and saw physics as a way of observing and explaining the world around me. Just as my mind was working to understand the people around me, to understand life, to understand friendships, so was my mind working on physics-related things. Physics is not something unrelated to life; it is a very good thing, so I declared that I would study physics. Then I pursued my master’s and PhD degrees. I wanted to continue working as an academic. Now I work as a researcher in the field. 2. What interests you in high energy and particle physics? My interest in this field began in third and fourth grade. We had a teacher working on these issues abroad. My enthusiasm grew even stronger when I met my teacher. I didn’t want to be a theorist. I wanted to be an experimenter. CERN was where they were working on experimental particle physics. I wished to be a member of that group. I was trying to understand the underlying structure of everything in particle physics. That’s why I was tempted to study this subject. 3. What impact does physical science have on other fields of science? There are several pillars to physical science. The first is basic research. Basic research entails comprehending the universe and nature by expanding our knowledge of the universe. You’re looking into “Why and how is the universe like this?”. When you find these answers, you add to the pool of knowledge. Basic scientists and engineers then apply this knowledge to create products and systems that improve our quality of life. All engineers, from mechanical engineers to software engineers, electrical engineers to civil engineers, collaborate to create products in applied science. They work in a variety of fields, including health and software. Physics reveals the realities that underpin all these studies. Engineers, in fact, build on and expand on this in their respective fields. In other words, physics has a structure that is shared by all sciences almost without exception. As a result, it forms a structure that is appealing to all disciplines. 4. Who are the physicists who most inspire you? First and foremost, Prof. Engin Arık, my thesis advisor. Not as an individual. In fact, rather than being a single source of inspiration, this has a universal dimension, because I am a collaborative experimentalist, because I work as a student in an international center like CERN, seeing many people who are interested in this work, working with many people. It is the fact that it is a laboratory where many people come together in solidarity and without any discrimination based on religion, language, or race that inspires me more than individuals. Seeing such people was an inspiration to me. So many people coming together and trying to find answers to the universe’s questions, it’s nice that such an environment exists, and I should be in it and continue to be in it. That was my motivation at the time. 5. What should be done to advance physics in Turkey? The answer to this question is 1 million times longer than the entire interview. In our country, the environment that people interested in physical science should have, as well as the environment that people interested in basic research should have, has not yet been formed in a healthy way. You may have realized, now that you are aware of the realities of social life and society, that “Let’s always invest in something so that we can benefit from it tomorrow.” We’re taking the approach of “Let me put one lira today and I’ll get three liras tomorrow.” But you must understand that the one lira you put in today will return to you as 300 liras, possibly many years later, but it will return to you in a sustainable manner. As an example, consider the following: Is it simpler to go from 0 to 1 or 1 to 1000? What do you think? It’s easier to get from 1 to 1000 because you have information, and we can get from 1 to 1000 by working with this information and thinking about what it can do. Basic research is the process of gaining knowledge from nothing. The culture of doing 1 to 1000 develops naturally in societies that prioritize fundamental research. This applies to mathematics, chemistry, and biology in all fields in Turkey on the road from 0 to 1, that is, in the difficult part of the work, in basic research. There must be an ecosystem that tells people who only work in laboratories or areas where theoretical calculations are performed, “Do research in this field with the specified target.” After that, it is much easier to make 1 out of 1000, because applied and engineer friends can directly multiply the material, knowledge, and skills you generate in your country. These are extremely valuable but let me also point out that science in the world is no longer done within national borders. There are global efforts. It is critical for Turkey to participate in these global efforts. In today’s event, I’ll attempt to explain CERN, one of these initiatives. 6. What is the significance of the CERN experiments? They are crucial in understanding the universe’s fundamental building blocks and how they function. The difficulty, and the reason for