{"news":[{"uid":4705,"title":"\u201cThe best quality you can have to become a researcher is to be resistant to frustration\u201d","teasertext":"David Cimasoni, senior lecturer at the University of Geneva, shares what it means to be a researcher in an interview by Science Olympiad volunteers Yuta Mikhalkin and Tanish Patil.","short":"\u201cWhen I was in high school, my math teacher mentioned different sizes of the infinite, and \r\nI thought to myself that I really want to understand this one day.\u201d A few years later, David \r\nCimasoni did not only understand that, but just a couple of weeks into his master\u2019s thesis, he \r\nsolved a problem in a way his advisor had believed impossible. Still unsure about a career in \r\nresearch, he decided to give it a try \u2014 and it paid off. Now a senior lecturer at the University \r\nof Geneva, his research primarily focuses on knot theory and mathematical physics. In an \r\ninterview by Science Olympiad volunteers Yuta Mikhalkin and Tanish Patil, he shares what it \r\nmeans to be a researcher.","body":"

\u201cKnot theory is very intuitive and therefore pleasant to explain. You have a rope, you tie its ends together and you study the different knots it can be shaped into: some are trivial, some are equivalent to each other\u201d \u2014 David Cimasoni explains, meaning that some knots can be untied or transformed into other knots. \u201cIn the end, once you formalize it, it comes down to a topological question that involves something called an invariant \u2014 in other words, a mathematical object assigned to each knot that doesn\u2019t change when the knot is being deformed. This way, you can prove that two knots aren\u2019t equivalent to each other if you show that their invariants aren\u2019t equal. One fun fact is that defining these invariants can involve techniques from virtually any branch of mathematics.\"<\/p>\r\n

Knot theory is very intuitive and therefore pleasant to explain. You have a rope, you tie its ends together and you study the different knots it can be shaped into.<\/p>\r\n

As the name suggests, mathematical physics is the branch that studies mathematical models behind physical laws and phenomena. One model that David Cimasoni is currently working on is called the dimer model. According to the model, if you have a graph and a set of edges that doesn\u2019t have common vertices yet covers all of them, it\u2019s called a \u201cperfect matching\u201d. You need to find those perfect matchings and ways to count them: for example, if a graph can be embedded in a plane, there is an efficient way of counting them. For more general graphs, one can apply tools from knot theory, which particularly catches David Cimasoni\u2019s interest.<\/p>\r\n

About the author: <\/strong>Yuta Mikhalkin volunteers for Physics in the Science Olympiad media team after participating herself. She studies mathematics in the University of Geneva. <\/p>\r\n

David Cimasoni's area of research is not just of interest to mathematicians though; he mentions that knot theory, for instance, is of interest to molecular biologists for the insights it provides into how DNA molecules behave and interact with each other, and how enzymes act on entangled molecules. He has personally collaborated with a physicist who was studying light signals and how they could become knotted, providing insights into the mathematical aspect of the research. He comments that the intersection of mathematics and other topics is not just about the 'what', but the 'why': \u201cA very good friend of mine works at Google now, and he's really trying to understand why the algorithms that drive AI work. Parameters can be tuned in order to improve the performance of machine learning models, but understanding the mathematics behind these decisions - visualizing what the geometric model is doing geometrically, as a sort of gradient descent on a manifold that finds good choices of local minima \u2014 is an important question too.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Stay tuned! More conversations with researchers are coming soon. Subscribe to the newsletter<\/a> or follow on Instagram<\/a> or Linkedin<\/a> so that you don't miss anything.<\/p>\r\n

When people think about doing research, one common impression is that finding topics must be difficult. David Cimasoni explains that it\u2019s actually not as difficult as it seems \u2014 most research ideas come from reading other people\u2019s works, where open questions are almost always waiting to be explored. Although, occasionally, someone else might publish the same idea while you\u2019re still working on it, which happened to David Cimasoni not long ago. Even though he still managed to publish his own paper on the topic, it made him realize how deeply we rely on external recognition for a sense of accomplishment.<\/p>\r\n

Another aspect of research is that you\u2019re working on a topic without really knowing in what direction to go or if there\u2019s even an answer to your question. Or worse, the whole theory you spent so much time developing might just fall apart all of a sudden. No one\u2019s really there to check that what you\u2019re doing is right \u2014 you\u2019re fully left on your own. \u201cOne year ago, a colleague and I published this paper, and about two months ago we noticed that there\u2019s actually a mistake in it, and no one had seen it! So we had to write an email to the editor asking to block it and all. Fortunately, the mistake is now corrected and the main results of the article still hold true.\u201d <\/p>\r\n

One year ago, a colleague and I published this paper, and about two months ago we noticed that there\u2019s actually a mistake in it, and no one had seen it! So we had to write an email to the editor asking to block it and all. Fortunately, the mistake is now corrected and the main results of the article still hold true.<\/p>\r\n

And what about teaching, the \u201cburden\u201d of a job in research? David Cimasoni primarily teaches undergraduate courses \u2014 often considered the least desirable \u2014 but he views this as a stimulating and meaningful part of his career. Whenever he hits a dead end in his research, which inevitably happens to everyone in the field, he finds reassurance in teaching, knowing it will always be valuable to someone out there: indeed, with an emphasis on clarity and structure, his lectures are particularly fascinating, and his well-written and precise lecture notes, even for courses he no longer teaches, are used and loved by many. And, contrary to what some might think, teaching is not nearly as boring as it seems. \u201cIt\u2019s extremely easy to communicate art \u2014 you can just look at it or listen to it \u2014 but communicating math is not the same: it\u2019s quite challenging and extremely interesting.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

When David Cimasoni was a student, and he once read, in a journal at EPFL, an interview with EPFL Professor Manuel Ojanguren. One thing he read in that interview struck him, and he still thinks about it today. \u201cThe question was: what is the main quality that one should have as a researcher? I thought he would obviously say you need to be smart. Instead, he said in French something like: Il faut avoir une tr\u00e8s grande r\u00e9sistance \u00e0 la frustration. You must be immensely resistant to frustration. And at the time, I just didn\u2019t understand what he meant.\u201d <\/p>\r\n

The question was: what is the main quality that one should have as a researcher? I thought he would obviously say you need to be smart. Instead, he said in French something like: Il faut avoir une tr\u00e8s grande r\u00e9sistance \u00e0 la frustration. You must be immensely resistant to frustration. And at the time, I just didn\u2019t understand what he meant.<\/p>\r\n

But today, the words hold much more meaning to him. In his words: \u201cAs a student, the exercises you are confronted with are often approachable in the sense that you are guaranteed to have solutions for them, and rarely are they open-ended even in the sense where you don\u2019t know what your final answer is expected to be - and in any case, you know there will be an answer. During your master\u2019s, questions you tackle become more open, but you\u2019re still supervised by someone with expertise who has a good idea of how to solve it and who can ensure it gets done. In actual research, once you\u2019re doing your PhD or after it, it\u2019s much more difficult to know whether you\u2019re going in the right direction!\"<\/p>\r\n

In actual research, once you\u2019re doing your PhD or after it, it\u2019s much more difficult to know whether you\u2019re going in the right direction!  <\/p>\r\n

So it\u2019s not so much about being smart. It becomes a question of being tenacious, of not letting go, and of having the psychological ability to think to yourself \"I can overcome this.\" Many times in his career, David Cimasoni saw people who were extremely smart, but unable to come to terms with the particularities of doing long-term problems. Conversely, he remarks that there are countless examples of people not considered prodigious by any means but who were able to reach the peaks of mathematics through perseverance and hard work, the most famous example of which is June Huh, the 2022 recipient of the Fields Medal (the most prestigious award in mathematics) who was famously rejected from almost every university he applied to for his PhD and did not obtain one until the age of 31, but proved to be a late bloomer and an outstanding mathematician.<\/p>\r\n

In general, mathematics is currently at a crossroads: applied mathematics has become better and better funded, with recent advancements in artificial intelligence bringing in big external interest. Meanwhile, pure mathematics, which is often more abstract in nature and less readily connected to real-world applications, can find itself left behind at times. David Cimasoni points out that students who are concerned about studying pure mathematics should not worry that they are missing the pipeline towards research jobs at firms like Google and Amazon. Of course, a degree in a more applied topic provides a more direct route, but David Cimasoni course, a degree in a more applied topic provides a more direct route, but David Cimasoni remarks that he has a lot of colleagues that made the move from research into industry. \"I have a friend, for example, who used to work in symplectic geometry and is now at Google. People hiring at these firms are smart enough to know that if someone has a Phd in pure mathematics, most probably they won't know everything about machine learning but they can pick it up very quickly.\" David Cimasoni\u2019s concluding advice to any young budding mathematician is simple but meaningful: \u201cWork hard, do what you love, and never stop trying!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Work hard, do what you love, and never stop trying!<\/p>","datetime":1746634140,"datetimeend":0,"newstype":1,"newstypetext":null,"links":"","subjects":["Knowledge","Tips"],"image":["https:\/\/mathematical.olympiad.ch\/fileadmin\/_processed_\/2\/c\/csm_IMG-20250502-WA0007_ce113478b3.jpg"],"link":"https:\/\/mathematical.olympiad.ch\/it\/notizie\/news\/the-best-quality-you-can-have-to-become-a-researcher-is-to-be-resistant-to-frustration","category":[{"uid":10,"title":"Matematica"},{"uid":11,"title":"Fisica"},{"uid":5,"title":"Startseite"},{"uid":4,"title":"Associazione"}]},{"uid":4661,"title":"Call for volunteers: Science Meets Fantasy in Basel","teasertext":"Last year, some volunteers from the Informatics, Physics, Robotics and Astronomy Olympiads teamed up with a ETH startup to bring the Science Olympiad spirit to Fantasy Basel, Switzerland\u2019s largest pop culture convention. In May we will be back - and you can join!","short":"Last year, some volunteers from the Informatics, Physics, Robotics and Astronomy Olympiads teamed up with a ETH startup to bring the Science Olympiad spirit to Fantasy Basel, Switzerland\u2019s largest pop culture convention. In May we will be back - and you can join!","body":"

Fantasy Basel features exhibitions, guest panels, gaming zones, and different contests, attracting around 88\u2019000 visitors from all over Europe. The Science Olympiad booth can be found on the Space Floor<\/a>, which hosts expert panels on robotics, geology, biology, chemistry, robotics and physics for a broad audience. However, participation is not limited to space-related topics, so all Science Olympiads are welcome!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

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Last year, visitors of the space floor had the chance to visit exhibitions and activities of the Swiss Space Museum and its partners as well as being treated to meetings and talks by space scientists, experts and science stars like Dr. Renato Krpoun, Prof. Peter Wurz, and the swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier. While the Science Olympiad volunteers probably did not expect to compete with such science superheroes, they definitely stole the show, no capes were needed.<\/p>\r\n

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Students, Astronauts, and the Mysteries of the Universe<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n

In May 2024, the Swiss Physics Olympiad brought science to life for visitors of all ages at their Fantasy Basel booth, where kids, students, teachers, and seniors alike could dive into the wonders of physics and astronomy. The stand featured a fun mix of challenges, including a science oracle and a memory game, both featuring a fun mix with pop culture references related to physics.<\/p>\r\n

The science oracle became a center of curiosity, where visitors could ask questions about any topic in physics. The challenge for the Olympiad volunteers was to explain these complex concepts in a way that was not only understandable but also engaging for even the youngest visitors. Whether it was explaining the mysteries of black holes or the secrets of quantum mechanics, the volunteers did a wonderful job making science approachable and fun.<\/p>\r\n

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The memory game, another highlight, tested players' knowledge with funny pop culture facts connected to physics. It was a hit among all age groups, offering an entertaining way to learn about the different subjects while connecting it to familiar movies, shows, and books.<\/p>\r\n

Tower of Hanoi as a Teaser for Informatics Olympiad<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n

The Swiss Informatics Olympiad offered Tower of Hanoi<\/a> and a card sorting game. As solving one of those games was required to get a reward, Tower of Hanoi in particular did garner quite a lot of attention, so there were plenty of opportunities to either directly motivate potential new participants to attend the Informatics Olympiad workshops or else give information for people who could encourage students they know to participate.<\/p>\r\n

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Tower of Hanoi is an excellent way of bringing the core of Informatics to a broad audience. While solving it requires neither a single line of coding nor a digital device, one must figure out and execute an algorithm in its head to succeed. This is exactly the kind of thinking the Informatics Olympiad tries to promote and acts as a gateway to the discipline. Solving the riddle was accessible to people of almost any age. There was a lot of positive feedback and the audience was very eager to solve the challenge.<\/p>\r\n

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The cogs are a-turning<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n

In order to make giveaways in a productive way instead of just leaving it on the table, the Science Olympiad volunteers partnered with the ETH student project Manzoku, who built a machine from scratch that can make stickers, pins and more. At Fantasy Basel 2024, the large, bright-white hull and the colorful capsules caught the attention of passers-by, captivating guests of any age to come and learn more about what the Science Olympiad had to offer. The hull did not retain its chalky-white exterior for long, however, as onlookers were encouraged to leave their mark on the gadget, using pens and markers, which turned it into a flashy column of vivid art and vibrant colors. The idea became a massive hit, with guests lining up to engage in our quizzes and challenges for the chance to win fun prizes turned out by the Manzoku machine. <\/p>\r\n

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Being a part of Fantasy Basel 2024 was a mesmerizing experience for the Manzoku team. Seeing the magnetic pull of the team\u2019s and the machine's presence, enticing guests to participate in the activities of the Science Olympiad booth, made it feel like the Manzoku team became part of the Science Olympiad. This year, they\u2019ve expressed excitement about joining again - with a new improved version of the machine.<\/p>\r\n

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You too can be a part of it!<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n

Would you like to see the mysterious machine in action yourself? Do you want to spread the word about Science Olympiad? Are you ready to help out and represent your Olympiad at the Science Olympiad booth? Good news: We will be back at Fantasy Basel between May 29 and 31, 2025<\/strong> - with an even bigger booth. However, that requires the help of a lot of volunteers! Here\u2019s what you can do:<\/p>\r\n