Patricia and Ariadna grew up in the Spanish coastal town of Castelldefels, just a fifteen-minute drive from Barcelona. In the summers, they always stayed with their grandmother Maribel because their parents had to work. Their grandmother was a Spanish woman who was ahead of her time, yet seemed to let time stand still in her house. “She didn’t have internet,” Patricia recalls. “Her house was full of books.”
National Geographic
Patricia and Ariadna loved reading and would lose themselves in their grandmother’s many books. Science fiction quickly became their favorite genre: stories full of scientific and technological developments that sparked one question after another from Patricia and Ariadna.
One encyclopedia that their grandmother prominently displayed caught the twins’ eye in particular: National Geographic. It was an edition about the universe, which the young Patricia and Ariadna immediately recognised from the cover. Ariadna: “Our grandmother didn’t put that issue on display because of the content, but because she found the colors beautiful. She painted and also taught us to paint in the summers.” Besides painting, she also taught them to cook, sew, and many other things. Patricia: “The most important thing was that she taught us the value of creative thinking in every aspect of life.”
Patricia and Ariadna came home excitedly to their parents. Ariadna: “Because my sister and I loved reading, our parents did their best to buy us, if possible, one book per month to share.”
Besides reading about the universe, the twins also asked countless questions to their teachers and to each other. “For example, whether the universe is open or closed,” Ariadna recalls. When they were eleven, they asked endless questions about the universe to the director of an observatory near their hometown, which they visited with school. “We couldn’t understand those subjects at that age, but they definitely sparked our interest!”
It was clear to them: they wanted to become researchers and learn everything about the universe. Ariadna: “That worried our parents. They asked aloud: what will you actually do after studying Physics?” Patricia: “Well, become a scientist. It’s cool that we knew that at such a young age!” Ariadna: “They were mostly upset that to pursue our dreams, we would have to leave Spain.”
Inseparable
As students, Patricia and Ariadna were inseparable. They chose exactly the same courses during their bachelor’s at the University of Barcelona and worked hard as tutors to pay for their education. Patricia: “We worked four hours a day alongside our studies. When we finished our bachelor’s, our parents could no longer afford our education. We searched everywhere for jobs, even in supermarkets, but luckily we found an internship at CERN, the European organisation for fundamental research in particle physics. Fortunately, we were both accepted as technical students at CERN for a year. Although it was an internship, the salary was enough to save some money.”
All their savings went into their master’s. Independently, they both chose the same master: Theoretical and Mathematical Physics in Munich. Ariadna: “We agreed that we’d each look for master’s programmes we liked and apply, and then compare. It turned out we both applied for five programmes, four of which were the same. And our preferred choice also coincided!” Patricia: “We both got accepted. So lucky!” Ariadna adds: “We both agreed that moving abroad is always hard, especially because you miss the people you love. Sometimes you just need someone to go for a walk with. Building that network is very difficult at first, but at least my sister and I always had each other when we moved.”
During their two-year master’s, the twin sisters started looking ahead: where could they do a PhD afterwards? Patricia: “Preferably at a university with two positions, although that dream seemed unrealistic.”
Twins at the same department
They ended up in Nijmegen, working with researcher Béatrice Bonga, who studies black holes. “Even though we had never heard of Radboud University,” Patricia admits. “We both had an interview with Béatrice. There was really only one PhD position, but she thought we were both good. Together with her colleague Badri Krishnan, she managed to create two positions in her department and accepted both of us.” Ariadna laughs: “Béatrice’s husband also has a twin brother, maybe that gave her some extra empathy.”
Once again, the two sisters moved abroad together, but this time it was harder than usual. In March 2021, they started their PhDs at Radboud University during COVID. Ariadna: “We weren’t vaccinated until August that year. When the restrictions eased, Béatrice immediately showed us around Nijmegen. I was impressed by the many murals in the city.”
Although Bonga could easily tell the two researchers apart, not all colleagues managed as well. Ariadna: “We can recall countless funny situations. But most colleagues became our friends, so they could tell us apart just fine.” Patricia: “You often notice when someone is unsure who’s who, and that leads to funny situations.”
Ariadna: “It also happens often at conferences that someone has met Patricia but not me or the other way around. At a conference in Copenhagen, for example, a guy kept staring at me. I looked at him, wondering: who is he? He had a Spanish accent, but I didn’t know him. He said we had spoken before, but it turned out that was with my twin sister.”
