CERN Accelerating science

CERN Schools of High-Energy Physics

Each year CERN organizes Schools that give junior researchers the chance to learn about recent developments in High-Energy Physics (HEP). Two Schools are organised by CERN every year: namely the annual European School and another School that is organized alternately in Latin-American countries (in odd-numbered years) or in the Asia–Pacific region (in even-numbered years). Each series of Schools is organised in collaboration with other organisations – e.g. JINR for the European School – even if a very large part of the practical organization is often done by CERN. Needless to say, for each individual School, partners in the host country also play an important role.

The CERN Schools of HEP date back to the early 1960s. The first schools were organized in Switzerland, near CERN, but soon they were held annually in other countries. Starting in 1970 some of the Schools were organized jointly with JINR, CERN’s sister organization in the former Soviet Union. Since 1993 all of the European Schools have been organized in collaboration with JINR; a collaboration that exemplifies how a common interest in science can bring people from different nations together in order to work in harmony with the common goal of expanding human knowledge. This has always been the aim of the School; bringing together young physicists from many different countries and putting them to work together during two intense weeks. The organizers make an effort to mix participants from different regions and promote cultural exchange, and considerable emphasis is put on promoting informal interactions between the students and the staff at the School.

The idea of holding similar Schools outside of Europe dates back to the late 1990’s. Given the strong and increasing interest of the Latin-American countries in HEP, it was decided that a School should be organized to encourage further participation in experiments. The aim was to prepare young people for research in experimental HEP, helping physicists who had previously undergone theory training, as is often the case in Latin-American countries, to take a step towards experimental physics. During the last years, the Latin-American community has been growing and the Schools have played an important role in this together with the EU-funded HELEN and EPLANET programmes. Institutes in several Latin-American countries have subsequently joined LHC experiments.

The first Latin-American School was held in Brazil in 2001, with subsequent events in Mexico (2003), Argentina (2005), Chile (2007), Colombia (2009), again in Brazil (2011),  and most recently in Peru (2013). Whereas, typically, there were about 50 student participants in the early schools, compared to about 100 in the European Schools, the numbers continue to increase with many highly-qualified Latin-American applicants, from which a selection is made within the constraints of the available funding.

The Latin-American schools have served as a model for the new series of schools in the Asia-Pacific region that started in 2012. CERN and KEK worked together on the practical organization of the first school, held in Fukuoka, Japan.

The participants of the first Asia-Europe-Pacific School in 2012 in Fukuoka, Japan

The Schools in 2013

This year, the Latin-American School was held in Arequipa, Peru, and the European School in Parádfürdő, Hungary. In both cases the number of applicants for the school far superseded the number of participants, with more than 130 applications in the case of Peru, for 65 available places, and over 200 for the European School, where 110 students were selected. Nick Ellis, director of the CERN Schools of Physics explains: “most of the applications were submitted by highly qualified candidates and making the selection proved to be a tough job”. An important criterion for the organizers is the applicant's potential to pursue a career in physics research while the level of experience is also taken into account. It is often the case that candidates might benefit by waiting another one or two years until they are in a better position to profit fully from the lectures and interactions with fellow researchers in training. 

 Students attending a lecture at the 2013 Latin-American School.

 

The Scientific Programme

The scientific curriculum of the Schools includes an intense programme of lectures given by leading scientists in the field. The main focus is to teach theoretical physics relevant to experimental students, but in recent years a course on statistical techniques has been added, which proves to be a very popular topic among the students. In the non-European schools, instrumentation is also included in the curriculum. Lectures are complemented by discussion sessions where students work in small groups of about 15 people under the guidance of a discussion leader. In the discussion sessions students have the opportunity to bring up any questions related to the lecture material, and discuss them in an informal setting with fellow students, the discussion leader and the lecturers who visit the various groups.

In recent schools, the students in each discussion group have also been asked to select a published experimental paper and collaborate in order to understand the analysis and the interpretation of the results. Then, on one of the last evenings they are asked to present their paper to the other groups. “When we set this project work, some of the students are uncomfortable that we have not given sufficient guidance on what they are supposed to do. However, that is exactly the point, to teach them to work more independently and develop their own ideas in collaboration with their colleagues.” says Ellis. The programme of the School also includes a student poster session where many of the students present their own research work to other participants including teachers and the organizers. Thus, students have the opportunity to discuss their own work with some of the leading experts in the field and develop their skills in teamwork in a context very relevant to their future work as researchers.

A photo from one of the student discussion sessions in Arequipa

A discussion group at the European CERN School in  2013, simulating a double ridge structure observed in p-Pb collisions, with the School’s hotel in the background. The picture was later used in their winning project presentation.

Students discussing their own research during the poster session at the 2013 Latin-American CERN School in Peru

Outreach

"Often the School offers opportunities for outreach activities” adds Martijn Mulders, the Deputy Director of the CERN Schools of Physics.  “Both in Peru and in Hungary newspaper journalists and local television crews visited the hotel for interviews with some of the students and staff at the school." he continues. During past schools students have also visited local schools to talk about their work, and in some cases a public CERN event happens at the same time as the School. For example, the European School in Hungary coincided with the opening of the new computing Centre at the Wigner institute in Budapest. This allowed the Directors General from CERN, Rolf Heuer, and from JINR, Victor Matveev, to visit both the opening ceremony in Budapest and give a lecture at the School in Parádfürdő. Every year since the start of his mandate Heuer has visited the European School and talked about the CERN scientific programme, which is always highly appreciated by the students. At these occasions he also talked informally with the students, and important contact with the next generation of researchers.

Organizers

Organizing a School means a lot of work for many people. Preparations usually start more than a year ahead of the event and involve a lot of administrative and practical work in addition to preparing the scientific programme. Many people in the CERN Physics Department contribute part-time to the Schools’ organization, including Hélène Haller and Kate Ross on the administration, as well as physicists who participate as lecturers, discussion leaders and members of the organizing committee.  The work is done in partnership with a team of organizers from the host country of each school, and where relevant with colleagues from other international organizations.

The next schools will be held in the Netherlands, India and Ecuador and details may be found on the School's website:

http://physicschool.web.cern.ch/physicschool/default.html