Luca's Webpage - About myself ...

Personal Information

Name	Luca Pirovano
Age	Ancient enough to be called "old geezer" by some kids ... But I feel 24. Honestly!
Academic Institution where last seen	Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine South Kensington Campus London SW7 2AZ The United Kingdom
Academic Institution where last did actually do some research	Institute for Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics University of Cape Town RW James Building Rondebosch 7701 South Africa
Last known position there	Doctoral research fellow in Theoretical Physics and teaching assistant
Last known job	Senior software developer
Home address	It changes quite often ... Three countries claim me as their son (albeit preceded by the adjective 'illegitimate')
E-mail	lpirovano@hotmail.com

I was born and raised in a small place in Lombardy (Northern Italy). Which - don't get me wrong - is rather nice, but not hugely exciting. So I soon decided that once I had grown up I would see the world.

Before setting off, I deemed wise and expedient that I should get myself a proper education. Since I was a kiddo I have always found myself fascinated by the misteries of the universe and the big unanswered questions. To understand the weirdnessitude of our world (and parallel ones as well), I took up physics.

After long studies in the subject and even more messing around in every other sorts of topics you can think of, eventually I got a laurea of Doctor in physics from the University of Milan , which - surprise surprise - is located in Milan, Italy.

If you think that laurea is a strange name for an university degree, I wonder what you may think of the title of my thesis:

A QCD calculation of the V-PP decay vertex.

Pretty weird, hey? Anyway, that's what it was called. It has to do with gluons and quarks, which - contrary to general belief - are not some fancy dairy products.

After that great achievement I started to get restless and to ponder over a move to New Zealand. Don't ask me why. It could have equally been Yukon or Tasmania. But one day I got out of bed and found in the post a letter from some South African chaps who for some obscure reason offered me money to keep on playing with subatomic particles in one of the most beautiful corners of planet Earth. Since I'm usually not very keen in wasting brain resources, I didn't think twice and jumped straight onto a plane bound for the tip of Africa. Which is 'n baie baie pragtig plek!

Besides doing the obvious things people do in Africa (dog sledding, cross country skiing and kangaroo hunting ... naaah, not really), I actually managed to find plenty of time to be a good boy and get even more educated. I started a PhD in Theoretical Physics at the University of Cape Town. Which - surprise surprise - is located in Cape Town.

My research topic was:

Non-perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics: The Sum Rules approach.

But again I didn't disdain to make other kinds of approaches to more perturbing subjects ...

While I was putting the finishing touches to my project, that involved complicated calculations with little or no supervision and using the bottom of African technology in fact of computers, a few problems arose. One being the sudden realisation that my financial situation was a bit kak.

So at the end of June 1998 I decided to do what most of the local youths think is a kief thing to do, i.e. to temporarily leave sunny SA and start hunting for a job in rainy UK. Or somewhere at swimming distance from there. I called that my Fund Raising Campaign '98. I landed in London with the hope to earn some quick bucks, go back to SA and get my degree in a negligible time on a geological scale. Preferably with a new and more adequate supervisor. Well, I'm still stuck in this foggy little island ...

Ackowledgements: I would like to thank the Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine of London for providing me with access to computing facilities during the last phase of my research project. It's a real shame that some b***ers in the Physics Department of the University of Cape Town showed a dogged persistence in trying their best to sabotage my efforts. But my persistence proved even greater and to this day I am still trying to answer those big unanswered questions ...

When I grow up I wanna do ... Dunno. Earn some megabucks in a couple of years and then retire sounds a good plan. Winning the lottery would be a cool alternative. Marriage to the daughter of a multi-millionaire even better. But that doesn't sound very likely coz I don't exactly look like Prad Bitt (or wassisname). So perhaps I should fly a bit lower. Or stick to the ground even.

Job experience: I've worked in disparate fields as a research scientist, a part-time lecturer, a tutor, a project manager, a software developer ... but my interests are far vaster, and wouldn't mind trying out new routes if given the chance.

I still spend a fair amount of time on topics such as Theoretical Physics (particles and fundamental interactions), Astrophysics, Cosmology, Non-linear sciences (Chaos, Complexity, Emergent phenomena, Self-organisation, Life, Consciousness, and all that), Philosophy of Science, Medieval History, Germanic Philology, Finance models ... And obviously watching cricket and rugby while sipping a chilled Windhoek Lager or some lekker Pinotage and chewing kudu biltong.

Are you running a deep space exploration programme? Have you got a nuclear plant to look after? Are you looking into developing a global long-term weather forecasting algorithm? Then if you happen to have a job vacancy, why not drop me a line? I'm available for permanent, contract and all sorts of mercenary work (I won't kill your neighbour though).

If you want to take a peek at my CV, here is a pretty comprehensive version :

My Curriculum Vitæ

There's also the academic stuff in it. I'm not sure how useful this info could be for a mentally sane public, but anyway ...


This is a picture of myself walking out of a pub in Whiteladies Road, Bristol (England). I told the chap with the camera to come a bit closer, but I think he was as much pissed as I was.