Kyle Cranmer

Since the physicist Kyle Cranmer was a child, he has always been inquisitive and observant. His way of understanding every aspect of life is by narrowing it down to its more fundamental level. "That's why I love physics," Cranmer says. "Physics is about trying to answer the most fundamental questions, how nature behaves and what are the building blocks that the world is made of."

Cranmer, who is only 30 years old, is now reaping the fruits of all his hard work. Last August, he started a new job as assistant professor in the Department of Physics at New York University, and in November, he was awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from President Bush, which identifies promising professionals at an early stage of their careers.

But Cranmer is not only successful when it comes to physics. On the 31st of August, one day before he started his new appointment at NYU, his son Reed was born. Kyle, his wife Danielle and baby Reed now live in downtown Manhattan: "So many things in my life changed this year. NYU is great, and I really appreciate living Manhattan because I can easily walk home to have lunch with my family," he says.

Cranmer has worked in the ATLAS collaboration as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and later on, as a fellow at Brookhaven National Laboratory. He now continues to collaborate in the building of the ATLAS detector and, in the coming months, he will be based in Annecy and travel to CERN regularly.  "I hope to take advantage of being close to CERN in the last few months before the LHC starts running," he says.

Besides science, Cranmer has many other interests that have nothing to do with the scientific enterprise. As a graduate student in Madison, he was active in the anti-war movement, and one of the founders of the Madison Area Peace Coalition. Cranmer was living in Geneva, finalising his PhD thesis at CERN at the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003. "It was interesting being an American living in Geneva during that time. There was a very different perspective than was given by the American media" he says.

The period in Geneva also affected Cranmer's lifestyle and he became very concerned about eating more healthfully and sustainably, and he was a member of the "Food For Thought" forum.  "After living in Switzerland, it was more obvious how the quality of food in the US was really degrading," he says. "So this group is promoting locally grown food and organically grown food." 

In spite of his busy life, Cranmer finds some time for other activities, such as capoeira, playing music, or hiking: "The bottom line is that I find peace in nature; it is where I go when I need to find direction. I can't think of anything more healing than nature, music, or family," he says. Physics provides you with a way of understanding the most inner workings of nature, and for that reason, Cranmer loves physical sciences.

Cranmer's hectic life goes according to his philosophy: "There is an amazing amount of time in a day; it's all about appreciation and a little bit of effort."

If you want to know more about Kyle Cranmer, you can visit his website: www.theoryandpractice.org

Cristina Jimenez