#19 Giovanni Peralta (LH 2010-13)

I treasure memories of a wide variety of cultural events that I witnessed with my eyes but, most importantly, I believe that many people I met there left in my heart the beautiful feeling of being loved, supported, and encouraged.

I come from a lovely town called Padria, North West of Sardinia, Italy. I arrived in London on the evening of 18 February 2010 to start my PhD in Physics at King’s College. It was cold and rainy. I had mixed feelings of enthusiasm and fear for this new adventure. During my first six months in London I lived in undergraduate student accommodation in Hampstead, but only three months after my arrival – during a student accommodation fair – I had the fortune to discover  the existence of a special college in the heart of London. In September 2010 I moved to Goodenough College, and with awe and admiration I discovered a new world where my academic responsibilities could be enriched by a stimulating and caring environment.

The simple act of giving some of your time to a fellow Member, sharing a meal, telling a story, playing a football game, watching a film, attending a concert, working at Gbar, organising a cultural event or a Port talk are unforgettable life frames of my time at Goodenough College. Staff and fellow members I met there resonate still in my head, recalling in me the warmth of the family.

In September 2012 I met Martyna, a Polish mezzo soprano who moved into the College to do a master’s in singing at the Royal Academy of music. One year and a half later we got married in Warsaw, where we currently live with the company of our little angels Massimiliano (5 y) and Leonardo (2 y).

Before moving permanently to Warsaw (July 2015) I completed my PhD in physics discussing a thesis with the title “From stress corrosion to catastrophic fracture mechanisms in molecular dynamics models of brittle materials”. I currently teach physics to lovely, curious and talented students who aim to study in the most prestigious universities in the world.

Amongst all the lovely fellow members I had the fortune to meet, I would like to mention my wife Martyna Kasprzyk-Peralta, Amaka and Nedu Ezuruike, Esteban Damiani, Cecilia Dinardi, Spyros Sypsas, Alexandra Tzirkoti, Arnaud De Lavallaz and Jessica Zhu, Deepak Nair, Fernando Caceres, Katharina Thoeni, Akbar Ghaffar, Munir Nuseibah, Ghazal Mosadeq, Dimitrios Vasilakis, Subhi Barakat and Fernanda Masri, Roberto Fumagalli, Nicola Lombardi, Carlotta Montagna, Livia de Andreis, John Chircop, Elisa Netzer, Raquel Vanyo Vicedo, Soofia Siddique, Salma Siddique, Brigid Coleridge, Baskaran Balasingam, Ivan Gachet, Erik Chavez, Carlos Fierro, Geraldine Koon, Lulu Karungi, Clara Sidor.

Special mention to my beloved staff members from that time: Director Andrew Ritchie, Dean Roger Llewellyn, Father Brian Creak, Rev. Jennie Hogan, Caroline Persaud, and Patricia Cobb.