Summer Students had the unique opportunity to get a glimpse of the life at CERN by attending fascinating lectures, visiting the underground facilities and working in the experimental teams. In addition, besides developing their academic skills, the summer school experience will help the participants establish useful contacts with students and scientists from all over the world. 

The organizers had prepared a rich and diverse programme of activities in order to offer the students an unforgettable experience. It included lectures as well as hands on practice; therefore providing extensive scientific expertise. In addition, the participants attend workshops on silicon sensors, data acquisition, scintillating crystals, cosmic particles etc. and work in the ALICE experiment. Moreover, a poster session took place, where students were able to present their work in the form of a poster. Students also shown great enthusiasm for the CERN Summer Student Webfest and worked in teams to design and develop apps that encourage the public to learn more about CERN, the LHC and particle physics. The students also had the chance to deliver a ten-minute lecture on their work project in the Auditorium, which was filmed and made available online. Finally, every participant is expected to produce a report, describing their experience of their project work at CERN. 

Member State Summer Students 2013: A word from the organizers.

The Summer Student Programme does not mean only work during the Summer for the HR team – the Programme for us begins in October with the publication on the web of the vacancy notice for the programme and ends when the last students leave at the end of the following September. Applications are considered and validated from October to the application deadline, usually at the end of January. Assessing over 1500 applications is quite a task! And that’s just Member States – we have the same number of Non-Member States applications too.

The selections are made in March by the supervisors and the lucky students are informed in April. Contracts are prepared and sent in May and the first students start arriving in June. On each of the 5 arrival dates the Summer Student team meets and greets the students for a brief induction session to inform them about their Summer at CERN. Whilst the students are here we organize visits to the experiments, small hands on workshops around CERN and coordinate the 6 week lecture programme. We organize a welcome drink and Poster session and student sessions (where the students give their own lectures about their assigned project). All in all we are here to help the students have a fruitful summer and get the most out of their time at CERN.

From left to right: Sharon Lynne Hobson, Eva Tolosa, Laura Salnier: the HR team that ensures that CERN Summer Students get the "Best summer of their lives". 

So for the HR team, the Summer Student Programme keeps us busy throughout the year and especially whilst the students are here from June to September, but it’s all worth it as at the end of their stay many students say it’s been “the best Summer of my life”.

Non-Member States (NMS) Summer Students Programme: CERN opens to the world's young

The NMS Summer Student Programme gives an alternative summer option to undergraduate students of physics, engineering, computing and mathematics, who are nationals of Non Member States of CERN. The Programme offers a first-class education course while the students have the unique opportunity to make valuable contacts within the scientific community, as they constantly collaborate and socialize with many different people in a multicultural, multidisciplinary environment.

The NMS Summer Students Programme constitutes an important part of CERN's policy of promoting greater global integration in particle physics. According to Emmanuel Tsesmelis, the coordinator of the Programme, many former NMS summer students have gone on to bright careers in science and they have often facilitated scientific collaborations between CERN and their countries.

Although being a summer student is definitely a remarkable experience, there are special challenges  for NMS nationals. Many of them have never left their countries before and Europe offers a new cultural experience to them.  They have to adjust to new lifestyles, languages and not to mention more day-to-day habits. Another problem for the students from the southern hemisphere is that their university classes are in session during the European summer. For this reason it has been suggested that CERN should consider setting up a winter school at CERN during the European winter that will offer the opportunity to students coming from the southern hemisphere attend outside their university semesters.

There are also several administrative issues to be dealt with, such as the visa required for most of the NMS students, correspondence with applicants and professors, arrangements for financial payments, organization of the student application files etc. Thanks to the invaluable help and support of Marina Savino (PH-UCM), Michelle Connor (PH-AGS), and Anca Burghart, these admistrative issues are settled successfully. One of course should also acknowledge the important role of Morna Robillard (PH-EDU) who recently retired.

As Emmanuel Tsesmelis notes, the Programme, which started out under John Elllis, has developed significantly over the past ten years. In 2003 there were 30 NMS summer students and in 2013 there are already more than 130.The selection process is very competitive and only the very best students can be chosen. In 2013, only 8% from 1600 applicants has been recruited. Although for now it seems impossible to accept more students it is certainly something we are considering for the future.

The NMS Summer Students Programme is financed only partly by CERN, which allocates funds mainly to students from developing countries. Additional funding is provided by the governments and universities of the Non Member States. There are also several organizations that support NMS summer students. For example, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation has disbursed grants to many students from Sub-Saharan Africa, the Engin Arik Memorial Fund supports Turkish students and Procter & Gamble has supported students from developing countries. Tsesmelis states: “we are very grateful to all the external sponsors of the NMS Summer Student Programme] and we want to continue our collaboration in the future”.  Altogether, sources of external financing are vital to the continuation of the Programme.