How did you decide to apply for the summer student programme?

I heard about the summer student programme through the Institue of Particle Physics (IPP) of Canada. I applied for the programme and was extremely excited when I got my offer. 

What is your previous background? 

At the time of my application, I had spent 8 months as a co-op student with the T2K collaboration working out of TRIUMF, in Vancouver, Canada. Also, I had spent 4 months in Darmstadt, Germany with the Quantum Information Processing Systems (QUIPS) group thanks to the International Research Experience Program (IREP). 

Tell us a few words about your project.

My project is doing upgrade studies for the ATLAS experiment. More specifically, checking how sensitive we would be to SUSY with 3000/fb of data, after the LS2. I am looking at chargino neutralino pair production decaying into 3 leptons via a W and Higgs boson.

Sebastien next to one of the LHC quadrupole magnets in front of the GLOBE!

Is your experience so far close to what you were expecting?

My visit so far has met and exceeded every expectation that I had coming into the programme. I have had the chance to visit the proton decelerator, the ATLAS and CMS experiments. The lecture programme is outstanding. Every lecturer is passionate about his/her research, and it shows. I have attended the MadGraph workshop and learned a lot!

Would you like to spend more time at CERN continuing with your research? 

I would absolutely like to spend more time at CERN continuing with my research. I hope to be able to do my PhD in particle physics with the ATLAS collaboration at CERN.

Did you have time to visit/travel outside CERN? 

Yes, I had time to go visit some friends of mine in Paris, France. Also, a few other summer students and I spent a weekend summer skiing is Zermatt. The views were breathtaking.

From my time as a summer student at CERN I will certainly remember...

I will take with me the long-lasting friendships I have made during my stay at CERN.