#SoCaltech: Marie Blatnik

"In high school, I had no idea what doing physics entailed or whether it would fit my personality, but I knew I was attracted to esoteric, obscure things. And when I read about the Large Hadron Collider, I thought that smashing atoms sounded very cool. I also liked the idea of doing a lot of different things. In physics, you do everything from computer programming to analyzing data to building the experiment apparatus. We cobble things together and make them work."

 Marie Blatnik is a graduate student helping to build a cryovessel (a giant "thermos bottle") for the neutron Electric Dipole Moment experiment, an ambitious project aimed at learning why antimatter in our universe disappeared. She works at both Caltech and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. In her spare time, Blatnik is an avid whitewater kayaker. The tooth she is missing in this photo is soon to be replaced; she lost it after she flipped over while rafting and hit a rock.

#SoCaltech is an occasional series celebrating the diverse individuals who give Caltech its spirit of excellence, ambition, and ingenuity. Know someone we should profile? Send nominations to magazine@caltech.edu.