This year
has brought us many new things. One of the most interesting one is our
collaboration with the European Organization for Nuclear research, otherwise
known as CERN. A surprising, but a welcome guest to our community.
In recent
years, Latvia has become a member country of CERN. This brings new opportunities
to all Latvian students, especially doctorate students. We have partnered with
the Latvian team at CERN on popularizing physics and showcasing the opportunities
we have at CERN.
As a part of our collaboration, in September we had a session on particle physics, where we talked about all things CERN. As we have partnered with CERN, we had a live virtual tour of CERN laboratories, accompanied by the Latvian scientists working there. Two scientists working there, virtually joined us here in Latvia, while walking in the CERN campus through the labs. A few other of the Latvian scientists working in CERN joined us also here, for a questions and answers session, where the students were able to ask all questions of interest about how it is to work there, what do you need to do to get there, and especially, something of interest for all of us, how much are they getting paid and many, many other questions. Our partnership brings many opportunities to our students. Throughout the year, we will give out tests, and the best performing girl and boy will get a prize. It will be an all paid two-day trip to CERN. They will be accompanied by one of our members and will be able to see what the scientists do there, experience the amazing scientific atmosphere and see all the amazing equipment they use to discover particles.