Close encounters

I am now sitting in the control room of the Very Large Telescope. The night is quiet. The Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) is currently in use, and our unit telescope (UT2, Kueyen, the Moon) is busy. This gives me some time to write a few lines. The site is wonderful, as usual. Soon I am going to take my small Zeiss binocular up to the telescopes platform, and have a look to the Milky Way. Always astonishing.

Daniel Funeriu.

While recalling what happened during the past weeks, something I had almost forgotten resurfaced. In fact, before leaving for holidays, I had a close encounter with a very interesting person. This is Daniel Funeriu, Minister of Education, Research and Innovation of Rumenia. Don’t ask me how (coincidences in life might be sometimes very intriguing), but at some point I found myself talking to the Minister in my dining room, in Garching.

I was immediately impressed by his personality, his enthusiasm, and his will of really change things. Fighting old farts and established trade unions seems to be his purpose in life. If you have a chance, have a look at his imposing CV, at the positions he has occupied, and the research he has done. And have a look at his age too… Among other things he was also member of the European Parliament.

What really impressed me was the fact that he is a politician, but he has kept is pristine scientist attitude, which is immediately perceived when he talks to you, in the most natural way you could imagine. At some point he asked me about my research activity.

“Astonomy?” – he said, half joking. “There are two disciplines I never considered: astronomy and quantum physics. There is nothing you can change there… you cannot put your hands on what you work on…“. Truly enough… the excruciating torture of astronomers (I am not sure about quantum physicists, though).

Ok, I’ll now go up to the platform, watching the stars. Just to renew the ancient link we have with them. My thoughts go to the 33 Chilean miners, buried more than 700m below the ground, only about 300 km south of Paranal. There is great hope, and being here one really feels a whole nation supporting them and their families.