Just over five years ago, Samer, an electrical engineer, became a HiLumier. Since then, he enjoys the delicate mix of human interaction and technical work at CERN.
He is part of a team made up of people with very diverse backgrounds, something that has helped him grow personally and professionally, and that also keeps him assembled to beauty. The beauty of people working together and achieving something bigger than themselves. The beauty of union.
The challenging technical tasks that Samer carries out on a daily basis often lead him to reopen his university books and notes. And returning to those university years means going back to Toulouse, to its pinkish terracotta bricks, its warm climate, and the taste of a chocolatine.
When Samer was 20 years old, he moved to La Ville Rose to study electrical engineering. After his master’s degree at ENSEEIHT, he did his PhD on “Electric Machine Design and Control” with Renault and right after that, he joined CERN, which was a dream come true.
Samer’s childhood dream was to work on a project that would push the boundaries of human knowledge, even of human capabilities. Now he feels he is part of it. On the list of half-fulfilled dreams is to get more and more involved in environmental projects. He wants to actively contribute to a better future.
“To understand the heart and mind of a person”, wrote the Lebanese-American poet Khalil Gibran, better known in his homeland as Jibrān Khalīl Jibrān, “look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to”.
Samer was born and raised in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, where beauty and chaos combine on the shores of the Mediterranean. Although the city faded a little last August, it did not suffocate from Samer’s memories, which still revive its colourful streets and, as it is said in French, its joie de vivre and insouciance. “We enjoy the day, we never think about tomorrow”, says Samer.
But if tomorrow, “today’s dream” for Khalil Gibran, is to be imagined, Samer does so with optimism. He hopes that in about 10 years we will be living in a more sustainable and harmonious society. And, by then, he also hopes to have witnessed the High Luminosity LHC in operation.
Whatever happens, Samer has already contributed, and continues to contribute, to this large project, and to this today. Besides, and this was not said by Khalil Gibran, “Hilumier once, Hilumier forever”.
