Jaki Noronha-Hostler

The Loomis Confessions: Jaki Noronha-Hostler

If you couldn’t be a physicist, what career would you choose?

 

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a ton of different things: archeologist, forensic scientist, automotive engineer. At one point, I was convinced not to be an archeologist because someone told me that they always had to rely on grants for their next project (ironic, huh?).  

 

The career I considered the most seriously and even almost dropped my physics major to switch to was law. I was very into high school debate as a teen, and I loved the deep research aspects of it as well as public debates. 

  

What is your favorite place? 

 

I’ve traveled quite a bit so picking a favorite place is nearly impossible. I’m quite content anywhere that has good coffee, comfy chairs, and lots of books. There are places that mean something special to me like Frankfurt, where I did my PhD and it still feels like going home when visiting there; Sao Paulo (and Brazil in general, where I have connections of family, friends, and work, plus I love the food; New York City, which I have a love-hate relationship with; and Houston, where I only lived briefly but have a number of good memories. 

 

What is the greatest scientific blunder in history? 

 

Excluding and not properly crediting women, minorities, and members of the LGBT+ community in science. I could say a lot on this subject, but I strongly feel that science has been held back by this mistake (and it is still being made to this day).  

 

Who is/are your favorite artist(s) in any medium—painters, composers, authors, filmmakers? 

 

I wouldn’t say I have any particular favorite artists beyond authors. For authors, I primarily read fantasy/science fiction books and some of my favorites are: N.K. Jemisin, Terry Pratchett, Ann Leckie, Tamsyn Muir, Robert Jordan, Samantha Shannon, Olive Blake, Zen Cho, and George RR Martin.

 

Who is/are your favorite hero(es) in life or in fiction? 

 

I am not someone who really has a lot of heroes; people are complex, and just because someone was really good at a specific thing does not mean I would want to emulate their entire life (this goes both for real life and fiction). There are complex main characters in fiction that I find fascinating. Two that come to mind are Egwene al'Vere from Wheel of Time and Breq from Ancillary Justice. I do not want to spoil too much, since Wheel of Time is now a TV show and many have not read the books, but Egwene is a brilliant woman who has enormous amounts of determination. She changes the world around her, just as she is changed by her experiences. Breq, on the other hand, is a very complicated character. The internal struggle of figuring out right from wrong when it is not clear cut is what draws me to Breq. 

 

Who is/are the villain(s) you love to hate? 

 

Cersei from Game of Thrones. Both in the books and TV she is one of the most captivating characters in any medium. She is an incredibly horrible person, but you have so much sympathy for her at the same time with everything she has been through. 

 

The male villains that are the most frightening to me are the ones that can pass as normal people (and can convince most people around them that they are ok), but once you dig deeper they show their true colors. Basically, whatever villain Michael Emerson (e.g. Lost, Evil) is playing at the time is the perfect example of this. Kilgrave from Jessica Jones comes at this from a different angle, but he’s just so incredibly real because he doesn’t even realize he’s a villain but he does these absolutely horrible things. That makes him an incredible villain.

 

What is your idea of happiness? 

 

New and exciting life experiences; hanging out with good friends and family; good food and comfortable places; swimming; playing with my dog; walking through a forest.

 

What is your idea of misery? 

 

Losing a loved one; injustice; extreme boredom; uncomfortable clothes.

 

What quality do you most admire in others? 

 

Enthusiasm; curiosity; hard work; empathy. 

 

What scientific question do you hope will be answered in your lifetime?

 

Unequivocal proof of a real (first or second-order) phase transition into deconfined quarks, either in neutron stars or nuclear experiments (heavy-ion collisions).