Luca Gallo

Hi everyone, I’m Luca! I am a PhD student in Complex Systems for Physical, Socio-economic and Life Sciences, at the Department of Physics and Astronomy "Ettore Majorana" in Catania. I just came back from an Erasmus Traineeship at the University of Namur, in Belgium, where I have spent nine months, from the beginning of June to the end of March.

Though I have moved many times, from my hometown to Turin, from Turin to Catania, I have never had the opportunity to live abroad. This was one of the main reasons why I wanted to participate in an Erasmus project. I remember the first day I arrived in Belgium. I was on a train to Namur, looking at those vast green fields of grazing cattle, thinking about how far my life went, from being a high school student of a small town to become a visiting PhD student in a university abroad. I was both amazed and scared!

It was a life-changing experience. I met friends from all around the world, I discovered a whole new country (it was small, so not that hard!), I learnt a new language (la langue de l’amour). And in case you were asking, yes, I drank some of the best beers in the world and I ate many times les frites belges.

Of course, it was not only a fun experience. In nine months, I had the possibility to work on my thesis under the supervision of Professor Timoteo Carletti and together with his PhD students. New ideas have been explored, old projects were revitalized, new connections have been formed. This Erasmus project had surely been one of the best experiences in my life, both as a student and as a person.