INQUIRER Sports

WITH A BAG of cue sticks hanging on his shoulder, a goatee and a thick English accent to boot, Jonni Fulcher could easily pass up for a beer-guzzling bloke who makes a living hustling in pool halls.

Based in Geneva, Switzerland, however, the 35-year-old Fulcher actually also works for the Center for European Nuclear Research (CERN) as a physicist, working on one of the most advanced scientific experiment in the world: The Large Hadron Collider.

The $6 billion project, which is 27 kilometers long, is buried 150 meters underground near the French-Swiss border and is considered as the largest, most expensive machine ever built by man, according to Fulcher, who earned a Phd in physics at the Imperial College in London in 2001.

The LHC is a particle collider that hopes to unlock such physics mysteries as dark matter and the structure of space and time. The machine made a cameo in the Dan Brown book and subsequent film ?Angels and Demons? as the creator of ?antimatter.?

One thing?s for sure, all that proton smashing has created a competitive energy inside Fulcher, who had funneled it to snooker at first, before switching to billiards.

?I don?t get to practice a lot because of work,? he said. ?I think I become more productive at work after I play pool.?

Fulcher, christened by commentator Ted Lerner as ?Dr. Jonni,? is quick to point out that his background in physics does not necessarily come in handy when it comes to shooting pool.

?You don?t need physics in billiards,? said Fulcher, who speaks six languages, including French, German and German-Swiss. ?Some things are just logical.?

With the LHC shifting to high gear this year with plans for the first of high-energy collisions expected to be attempted in early 2010, Fulcher said his colleagues didn?t like the idea of him flying to the Philippines to play in the World 10-ball Championships.

But now that he is in the round of 32, Fulcher feels he is getting more than he bargained for.

?I think I?m getting the best out of both worlds,? said Fulcher.