Guru of Hatha yoga
Many readers of symmetry are undoubtedly familiar with the Dan Brown novel Angels and Demons, which is staged partially at CERN. One of the characters, physicist Vittoria Vetra, is described as "CERN's resident guru of Hatha yoga."
If any physicist may rightly aspire to having been a "resident guru of Hatha yoga," it might be me. For decades, CERN has had an active Yoga Club that provides yoga classes on site, but to my knowledge, I am the only physicist who has taught Hatha yoga regularly at CERN.
Ever since I was trained as a yoga teacher in the 1970s, wherever I find myself for an extended period of time, I arrange a free Hatha yoga class. I have offered such classes at Kent, Ohio; Anchorage, Alaska; Berlin, Germany; New York City; Tsukuba, Japan (at the KEK laboratory); and presently in Davis, California.
At CERN in the 1980s, I taught once a week for about four years on the second floor of Restaurant No. 2. My students included other physicists who were avid runners, who saw yoga as a way to increase flexibility.
Richard Breedon, University of California, Davis
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