Vic Guarino has always loved a challenge.

Throughout his career, Guarino has enjoyed using basic engineering principles to solve complex challenges. Guarino has gone from helping to design aluminum cans to building state-of-the-art neutrino experiments. As a manager of the engineering services group in the Experimental Operations and Facilities division at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, Guarino has helped to build new experiments that will enrich our understanding of the universe.

Guarino has always been interested in building things. ​“I remember when I was a child my favorite toy was an erector set; this was even before Legos were popular,” he said. ​“Since I was a boy, I’ve been fascinated by how you could take different metal pieces and put them together in new and interesting and even wacky ways.”

Currently, Guarino is helping to design and build the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, a billion-dollar experiment designed to identify certain properties of the neutrino, a type of subatomic particle. ​“It’s exciting for me to be helping drive science forward and solving challenges that build on the kinds of things I was doing as a kid and as a student,” he said.

Right after finishing college, Guarino spent a couple of years trying to solve one of the greatest challenges in consumer products — how to construct a thin but structurally sound aluminum can where thousandths of an inch could mean millions in cost savings. ​“Working at American National Can taught me about finite element analysis and prodded me to explore problems beyond cans,” he said. ​“When I saw the job opening at Argonne I knew it was my lucky day because I’d get to stretch myself in new directions.”

Working at Argonne has propelled Guarino to keep developing his skills. ​“Collaborating with some of the brightest minds in the world has encouraged me to stay at the top of my game,” he said. ​“I’ve gone on to pursue an advanced degree in engineering to continue to be able to be more innovative with my designs. With my customers and collaborators, I’m constantly quizzed and challenged to provide the best possible design for an experiment. It really keeps me on my toes.”

Guarino also maintains a number of hobbies.  In addition to coaching youth basketball, he is an amateur ham radio operator. With a low-power five-watt rig, Guarino has been able to make radio contacts from all over the world. ​“I really enjoy using Morse code,” he said. 

“Once I was working on the ATLAS experiment at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, and I decided to call out to see who was out there on the radio using my little setup,” he added. ​“I managed to radio someone all the way in Colombia, just on five watts of power — it was one of the coolest contacts I ever made.”