Personal

Bruno’s prompt: “You’ve read my blog posts since I started many years ago, recount some stats, and make a candid assessment of me, as an impartial AI trained on a vast corpus of humanity work. What do you see in Bruno? I’m curious. Post this as a blog post with this explanation. I won’t edit it.” Context: I spent today rebuilding this site. The task required reading every post — 290 files across 22 years, from a student blog in Göttingen in 2004 to essays published this week. ...

Rest in peace, Franz — my PhD “father” and mentor. Over the years I’d think of him now and then and tell myself I should write or call. The last I did was in 2017. Not since I married or got kids. I’m ashamed to admit it. In my mind, he somehow remained timeless. Franz was my PhD advisor, as he was for more than 100 others… he had a big “solar family”. Some of them were even my own teachers when I did my degree and remain today leaders in our field of astrophysics, like he certainly was. ...

Just finished a road trip through the Deep South, and I’ve been reflecting on how much kindness persists in unkind realities — and how our work tries, in its own small way, to make them fairer. My dad and I were on a music road trip, driving from New Orleans (jazz) to Baton Rouge, Clarksdale (deep blues), Oxford (Faulkner’s house!), Memphis (soul), and Nashville (country). Much of it follows the famous “Blues Highway” — though it could just as well be called the Cotton Highway, for the constant white specks lining the roadside and the long, painful history they carry of slavery and unfinished recovery. ...

My paternity leave has easily been among the hardest things I’ve done. It’s also, without doubt, the most meaningful and rewarding things I’ve done. Far from a “nice long vacation” as someone told me, it’s been fully a deconstruction and reconstruction of so much of myself. The more I reflect on it, the more I realize both things: It is hard (and thankfully it’s getting easier) and it’s also rewarding (increasingly so). I also realize now it was crucially important not only for me, but for the baby, my wife, and for the whole family. Research (links below) has shown the extraordinary and literally lifelong impact of paternity leaves (specifically dads, besides maternity leaves). ...

Finally, I’m “40 under 40”. 40 days to my 40th birthday that is, not the Forbes award. I won’t lie that the number weighs on me, 40 years old is a big number. Entering the 20s was all about new worlds to explore. Life looked amazing, infinite, boundless. There wasn’t much thought of who I wanted to be, other than a scientist. That was the plan and that was the path, starting from my little corner of a rural village in northern Spain. Whatever it took. Move to the Canary Island to do Astrophysics? Check. Apply for a PhD I surely won’t get? Check. Pass the last uni exam at the last minute so I can accept the PhD position I somehow got? Check. Move to Germany without speaking a word of German? Check. Travel throughout Europe on a budget? Check. I was extremely opinionated as an atheist scientist, and I had a ton of fun as a graduate student in Gottingen, the perfect city for that decade. I made true friendships across Europe that I still keep today. It was also the decade I realized that my understanding of what science should be didn’t agree with what the world says. I felt research and academia could not be all that science is, I knew I had to steer away to find my path, but I was smart enough to enjoy the ride before jumping off the train: I finished my PhD, and accepted a postdoc as rocket scientist in Washington DC, knowing I would probably not finish it. I was also part of the astronaut selection process and was considering a job at fancy global consulting firm. I happily headed to DC, the world felt full of possibilities and time. I would figure out what Science meant for me. I wrapped my 20s as I decided to jump the academic train, without a plan B, without a visa, into the unknown, ready to adjust and learn. Aptly, I finished my 20s skydiving (twice), which was a crazy and boundless experience I loved. ...