CERN encourages girls to "expand their horizons"
On 14 November, CERN took part for the fourth time in "Élargis tes horizons" (see here), a conference organised every two years at Geneva University for girls from the local region aged 11 to 14 aiming to encourage them to take up studies and careers in the scientific and technical domains.
Claude Sanz (left), a fellow in the EN Department, explaining to three girls how to build a particle accelerator in a salad bowl.
This year, young physicists and engineers from ATLAS and CMS ran three workshops: "Seeing the invisible using a cloud chamber", "Great cold fun and treats with liquid nitrogen" and "Build your own accelerator in a salad bowl!" CERN was also represented at the Forum de Découverte, represented by the Diversity Office and the Medialab team, presenting the "Higgnite" interactive experiment, which illustrates the principle of the Higgs field.
More than 400 girls attended this year's "Élargis tes horizons" and 120 of them took part in the CERN workshops. CMS physicist Rebeca Gonzalez Suarez, who ran the workshops, said: "The girls were all really eager and interested and we had a great time showing them how to build a particle accelerator in a salad bowl! Perhaps some of them will end up at CERN one day."
