Just went straight from the IPPOG (International Particle Physics Outreach Group) meeting in Pisa to CERN last weekend. In Pisa we had, once again, plenty of discussions about outreach in particle physics, International Masterclasses, exhibits and other related subjects. We also had a very nice visit and tour of the EGO Virgo site as part of the programme. Obviously, the funny tower was part of the programme as well. Since Sunday I am at CERN for the ATLAS physics and performance week and again lots of meetings on outreach and redoing the ATLAS Visitors Centre.
Category Archives: Cities
Open Day & Fotohalbmarathon
Wow … what a weekend. After returning from the LHC LLP Workshop in Trieste at 7am on Saturday, I went straight to Garching to set up the scene for our 2017 Garching Open Day event starting at 11am. After getting home at 10pm I got started on the final preparations for Sunday’s 2017 Fotohalbmarathon. But one after the other …
Once again, and thanks to a great team, we had an exemplary Open Day event on Saturday … ATLAS live-info screens and posters, a button machine, a BYOPD competition, a large ATLAS LEGO model, short-film screenings throughout the day, a screening of “BBC Horizon – Inside CERN” in the evening, and several hundred people passing by (47 participants in the BYOPD competition) and chatting/discussing with us. The final QnA after the movie took longer than the movie itself :)
On Sunday I organised the ninth (my fifth) edition of our little version of a photo marathon, called Fotohalbmarathon. This year’s twelve topics followed the theme ‘Urban Globetrotter‘.
For both events the juries are still busy working out the best contributions ;)
Long-lived particles in Trieste
Just returned from our very nice workshop on ‘Searches for long-lived particles at the LHC‘ in Trieste. Three intense days of reports, discussions and new ideas related to searches for exotic long-lived particles at the LHC and beyond, and me having the pleasure to give the closing talk on Friday. Given the tight schedule there was unfortunately not much time to actually see Trieste, but here’s a few impressions …
ATLAS (25) week in Bratislava
Just left the closing session of this year’s outside ATLAS Overview Week 2017 which took place in Bratislava, Slovakia. Besides the usual physics, detector and performances updates, we had our internal ATLAS25 celebration party on Thursday.
From the outreach side we presented and got people involved in various activities and presented some really nice videos documenting the past 25 years during the celebration.
Obviously there was also some (though not much) time to see the city, the castle, the Most SNP and to escape from the clutches of a corrupt policeman.
Last but not least, the ATLAS collaboration board just granted me the honour to be the next outreach co-coordinator, starting next March :)
Thunderstorm deluxe
Just witnessed more than 30 minutes of constant lightning strikes and nonstop thunder from our balcony. Somewhat scary, but certainly impressive!
I managed to capture a few lightning bolts :)
In case you wanna see some of it for yourself ;)
https://youtu.be/B6stzlgp3lM