Category Archives: CERN

IPPOG meeting,
ATLAS Week, Open Day

CERN, Garching, Geneva, LEGO, LMU, Outreach, Physics

The past ten days have been somewhat crazy (unfortunately the upcoming ones don’t seem to be calmer) …

From 4 to 6 October I joined the autumn meeting of the International Particle Physics Outreach Group (IPPOG) at CERN as the representative of the ATLAS Collaboration, listening to and discussing about worldwide efforts in particle physics science education and communication. IPPOG – a global network of scientists, science educators and communication specialists – welcomed four new members at the end of the meeting: Austria, Denmark, the LHCb Collaboration and the ALICE Collaboration. Amongst other things we had brainstorm session on possible new exhibits to improve and extend the IPPOG resource database and how to communicate the knowledge transfer from particle physics to society.

From 8 to 12 October I was at CERN for the ATLAS Collaboration Week as well as lots of other meetings. In an intensive though productive outreach session, we dedicated a large fraction of the time to the status of and future plans for ATLAS Open Data. On Thursday we had 39 students from LMU Munich over for a full-day visit to CERN, in particular the  Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) Control Room, the CERN Control Centre, the magnet-test facility (SM18) as well as the ATLAS Visitor Centre. And … hohoho … I witnessed a very special VIP (white-bearded guy dressed in red) visit to ATLAS last week ;)

Last but not least, on 13 October we had our annual Open Day in Garching, this time incorporated into the 150 years TUM celebrations (who shouldn’t get any credits, because they didn’t print our activity in the official programme … buh!). Similar to last year’s event, we had the ground floor of the Institute for Advanced Studies and showed the ATLAS LEGO model, hosted a Build Your Own Particle Detector event/competition and had a little particle physics exhibition with live event displays from CERN, short movies about ATLAS and CERN, the Netzwerk Teilchenwelt button machine and loads of discussions. Finally we hosted a screening of ‘BBC Horizon – Inside CERN‘, a documentary about the ‘famous’ 750 GeV bump in 2015 LHC data, as well as an extensive question-and-answer sessions afterwards.

LLP and SUSY workshops

CERN, Geneva, LLP, Physics, Stockholm, Sweden

Spring time is (apparently) workshop time.

Last week I spent three days at the 3rd LHC Long-lived Particle workshop at CERN where the status and plans for searches for long-lived particles (LLPs) at LHC and elsewhere have been presented and discussed. Hopefully soon we’ll be able to put out a white paper, summarising current LLP search coverage, ways to improve it and a unified ‘language’ (set of simplified models) for sensitivity studies and reinterpretations.

This week I went to Stockholm for the 2018 ATLAS Supersymmetry Workshop to meet with a large fraction of the ATLAS SUSY community to (again) discuss the status quo as well as plans and ideas for the future (in terms of supersymmetry searches within ATLAS, also including a few LLP searches). Great location (institute and city) and nice workshop …

IPPOG in Pisa

CERN, Italy, Outreach, Pisa

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.

ATLAS Outreach

CERN, Outreach, Physics

As of today I officially have the pleasure of being the new ATLAS Outreach co-coordinator. After my election back in October and a steady ramp up in past few weeks/months, I am now officially taking on the role and will be doing it for at least the following two years.

I started doing particle physics outreach already during my masters degree back in 2006 and took part in and/or organised a variety of outreach activities over the past twelve years. From Open Day events, Q’n’A brunches, school lectures and science slams to being a CERN Guide, hosting workshops at science festivals and organising social media events. Obviously, the ATLAS LEGO model – which also marked the beginning of my involvement in the ATLAS Outreach team – as well as the creation of the ‘Build Your Own Particle Detector‘ programme were, and still are, a great experience.

It’s going to be exciting times and I look forward to working on all the different aspects of ATLAS Outreach. From our communication and education programmes, to activities at and around CERN as well as getting ATLAS institutes and members involved in what we do, both for ATLAS and at their home institutes. In addition there’s some nice ideas/projects in the pipeline for these two year, so stay tuned.

And yes, if you are an ATLAS member and not doing any outreach yet, please get in touch!
And if you are doing it, please still get in touch, we wanna know about it!