An experimental physicist, member of The Academy of Europe and professor at one of the world’s largest universities, Paić was born in Paris and has lived in Zagreb. His research work has been cited some 43 thousand times.
Guy Paić, an experimental physicist, member of The Academy of Europe and professor at one of the world’s largest universities, is among the crème de la crème in the global physics scene. An ethnic Croatian born in Paris his research work has been cited some 43 thousand times. On the current h-index (Hirsch index), a metric measuring scholarly citation impact, Guy Paić’s score of 104 puts him at number 1,876 among 2,258 researchers, living or dead, with an h-index above 100. The list is led by Sigmund Freud.
In the meantime his h-index number has grown to 108 and will likely continue to grow. Although he celebrated his eightieth (or, as he would say, four times twentieth) birthday in September, Guy Paić’s agenda speaks of a man in the peak of his scientific vigour. He continues to work actively in the nuclear research institute at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), spends part of his time at CERN, where he was among a group of thirty scientists that launched the building of one of the four detectors at the massive CERN accelerator. He continues to be actively associated with the ALICE experiment, one of the four chief experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). On the 13th of October Guy Paić joined academician Ivan Đikić as a lecturer opening a festival of science in Sinj.
In Mexico he works at UNAM’s nuclear research institute, in Switzerland at CERN and he tries to spend as much time as he can on visits to Croatia with his Mexican wife Maria del Socorro.
He retired while still at CERN in 2003, but accepted an offer from UNAM and has been working there for the past fourteen years. He was recently the recipient of a medal awarded by the elementary particle section of the Mexican Physical Society for his contribution to the development of experimental physics in Mexico.
An all-day symposium was staged to honour Paić on his eightieth birthday on the 30th of October pooling specialists from the USA, Mexico, Hungary, Germany, CERN and others.
Guy was born in Paris. His father Mladen, who earned a doctorate at Zagreb’s faculty of engineering in 1928, had moved to France in search of work. Having won a scholarship he also earned a doctorate at the Sorbonne. He returned to Zagreb with his family in 1946.
Paić’s first wife was the late Arlette Ambrozić-Paić. A concert pianist by training, she worked as a reporter with the Svijet and Studio weeklies during their heyday under editor Pero Zlatar. His son Alan earned his doctorate at CERN and now works as a senior analyst for science and technology policy at the OECD in Paris, while daughter Lana is a street performer in France.
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