As I chose my specialist lectures and other events months ago it can be hard to remember what I signed up for. Meeting up with my lecture group I learned that the first topic of the day would be a familiar one for me, particle physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
Thankfully my current presenter, Professor Freya Blekman, and my previous one, Dr Luca Mantani, work in extremely different areas of LHC particle physics. Thanks to Professor Freya’s experience at CERN she opened the talk with an introduction to some of the logistics at the LHC such as in which countries can work there and a day in the life of a particle physicist at CERN. For the heart of the talk, we looked at some of the collision data from the LHC, which is public domain, and began learning how to read such diagrams from the collider.
It was to my surprise that once the talk had concluded we, the audience, were tasked with making a stage-ready version of the presentation and later perform it in front of the rest of LIYSF. In a panic, our group ran around like a bunch of headless chooks, but in the end, we were able to muster something together and it turned out alright.
Photo 1: Our performance
Wanting a break from cafeteria food we went to a local pizza place where I got to try some of the authentic stuff. It’s in these moments, sitting on the side of the road with friends from across the world that all that I’ve done in the last week begins to set in; Finally, I think I understand how unique of an experience I’ve been blessed with.
Photo 2: Pizza in London
– Connor