Mental health in particle physics
The recent Lepton Photon 2023 conference featured a plenary panel debate on “Mental Health in Particle Physics”. Centre member and University of Adelaide researcher Dr Harish Potti was a panelist alongside Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health at Monash university Professor Kim Kornish and Tezpur University in India’s Dr Moon Moon Devi.
A summary of Dr Potti’s speech is below.
“As part of the ATLAS Early Career Scientist Board, we organise various types of events like induction days, soft skills workshops, tutorials, etc that are helpful to the Early Career Scientist (ECS) community. Among them, mental health workshops were the most popular types of event and the feedback showed a strong desire from the ECS community to raise awareness about work-related mental health challenges and having support networks at workplaces.
I would like to give an introduction about mental health in a unique way.
Recently, I came across a philosophy paper written by three particle physicists, titled “On Math, Matter and Mind”. I really liked a figure in this paper where these three things were arranged in a triangle.
Ref: https://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0510188.pdf
Matter (and antimatter) is explained in terms of mathematics (Standard Model or BSM). Mathematics comes from our mind. Mind arises from the matter. Hence, they arranged them in a cyclical triangle.
In summary, all the particle physics theories (Standard Model or new physics theories) are formed in the mind based on the observations of matter. Therefore, my perspective based on the above figure is that the human mind is the innermost fundamental particle detector.
In our High Energy Physics labs, we have strict rules about having a radiation-free and clean physical environment for keeping particle detectors safe. Similarly, we should have strict mental health policies so our minds are not damaged due to unnecessary stress, fears and anxieties. While improper temperatures and humidities destroy our particle detectors, unrealistic expectations and stress-inducing timelines destroy our mental health. Thus, in all our planning for the future of particle physics, mental health should be a community value.
In general, academia is very stressful. People are constantly under pressure with a high workload and less time. Early career scientists especially have worries about an uncertain future and job opportunities. All these issues cause mental exhaustion at the workplace. A few actions that supervisors and team leaders can take are given here:
Set goals and expectations for early career scientists in a way that is realistic and promotes work-life balance.
Create a culture where people are not expected to work during weekends and holidays. Everyone, including students, should get paid annual leave.
Increase awareness about mental health challenges and how to spot warning signs as many people don’t even know the difference between good and bad mental health.
Teach ECS about strategies for coping with the competitive environment and working under pressure.
Encourage everyone, including healthy and happy people, to have a daily mental well-being routine to build mental fortitude and psychological resilience.
Two questions from the Q & A session:
Q: One major problem for mental health in academia is the imposter syndrome. Can we improve the situation with better communication and more openly addressing this?
I asked my PhD advisor this exact same question a few years ago. He told me that he also has similar questions about himself, like, “Am I good enough?”, “Am I doing enough work that I am supposed to do?”, etc. Before I give his response, I think it is important to note that these imposter feelings may not go away even after you become a tenured professor with years of accomplished research.
Often, ignorant people have a lot of confidence and speak more boldly when compared with academic researchers. I think it is because of our constant learning and our desire to be better than we currently are. A sense of incompleteness and dissatisfaction with our current skills is probably a necessary first step to improve ourselves and increase our skills. So, instead of feeling sad about these imperfections, we should recognise them as areas where improvements are needed and where our energy should be focused.
Q: Senior collaboration members can misuse power over careers of early career scientists. What steps can be taken about bullying?
Bullying is not our culture and does not have a place in academia. It should be reported. When you join an analysis team or a scientific collaboration, you should always feel a welcoming atmosphere. Nobody owns an experiment or analysis.
If you face such problems, don’t suffer in silence. Always speak up. Some people might ignore them. Bu there are many people who are willing to help you and make scientific collaborations a welcoming place for everyone. In ATLAS, there are many places where you can file a report, including CERN Ombudspersons, physics coordinators, group conveners, early career scientist board and Diversity & Inclusion contacts. I think every university and scientific collaboration has equivalent roles for filing bad behaviour and please don’t hesitate to submit a report.
In conclusion
At CERN, proton beams are injected into the LHC ring at an initial energy of 450 GeV. As the beam energy slowly increases with each revolution to reach the target energy of 6.8 TeV, the magnetic field has to be increased simultaneously in sync with the energy to keep the protons in the loop. Otherwise, they would fly out of the LHC ring. Similarly, with advances in technologies and times, mentoring styles must evolve accordingly. That means, goals and policies that promote mental health should be a high-priority for current and future particle physics endeavours.”