Reaching out from the Liverpool@CERN Particle Physics Summer School
The Liverpool@CERN Particle Summer School recently celebrated its 13th year of educating high school students in particle physics topics and Dr Cristiano Sebastiani has been the main organiser of the event from Liverpool since 2021, together with Dr Alexandra Galloni from the Seven Oaks School. This year has been a particularly remarkable experience as it was finally hosted in person at CERN for the first time since 2019.
Cristiano welcomed the students and teachers to CERN on August 21st, and for 5 days they engaged in lectures, site visits, and activities. This year's school saw the participation of 24 students selected from across the country. Tailored specifically for high school students, the program serves as a comprehensive introduction to Particle Physics. It featured lectures delivered by members of staff, postdoctoral researchers and PhD students from the University of Liverpool, supplemented by visits to ATLAS and CMS, as well as programming workshops so students can have a look at data themselves. Students had the opportunity to explore deeper into the subjects presented during the school through group activities. Lectures were also complemented by discussion sessions, with approximately four students in each group. They were not only presented with the latest developments and future prospects at CERN's LHC but were also introduced to the daily life and aspirations of particle physicists, inspiring them for their potential future careers in the field.
The group during a visit to the ATLAS Small Wheel and Control Room at CERN.
The feedback received has been extremely positive, here are a few received:
“I found the talk on silicon detectors made at Liverpool university very interesting, it connected the work being done at CERN with a closer to home example. I also enjoyed the talks expanding on the standard model as it extended my knowledge on something i had learnt through the A-level course but in a more in depth and focused way.”
“Visiting the AD was one of my favourite parts of the trip, especially hearing about all the projects there and how they worked - I am now very excited for the paper to be published by ALPHA in September. It was also amazing to see the scale of the CMS and learn about all the safety measures surrounding it.”
“I think all of the researchers and lecturers which gave us their time during the past week were absolutely exceptional and I learned so much as well as being inspired to learn more. Thank you Cristiano”