July 03, by Simone Ulmer

The fifth interdisciplinary PASC Conference, co-sponsored by CSCS, took place this year from July 2–4 in Basel. And, for the first time, it included an interdisciplinary dialogue: Petros Koumoutsakos, professor for Computational Sciences at ETH Zurich, interviewed Constantia Alexandrou, a professor for physics at the University of Cyprus and Institute Professor at the Cyprus Institute, about her research. Alexandrou is an expert in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and studies the strong interactions – a mechanism responsible for the strong nuclear force – using large-scale simulations.

After a short presentation about her research, Alexandrou faced Koumoutsakos’ questions, which ranged from her preferences on the ongoing football World cup, to the error bars in her diagrams based on the results of her simulations, and even to philosophical discussions about the statement of the Greek philosopher Dēmókritos (460–370 BC): "Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion”.

Take a look at the worth-seeing video, learn more about QCD and enjoy the dialogue: