In October of last year, I packed my bags and boarded a flight to Switzerland to begin what would become one of the most unforgettable experiences of my life: A year-long research placement at CERN as part of my master’s in physics and astronomy. Ever since I first visited CERN at the age of 14 on a trip with the Scouts, I’d dreamed of one day returning there to do research, and this year that happened.
Living In Switzerland
Geneva sits nestled between the Jura mountains and the towering Alps, offering breathtaking views in every direction. I lived in Meyrin, a peaceful suburb just outside the city and only a 20-minute walk from CERN. My apartment was luckily on the top floor of the building which meant I spent many evenings sat on the balcony with friends watching the sun set over the mountains.
Switzerland is expensive, luckily Meyrin is right on the border so most of the shopping could be done in France (being aware of personal Import allowances). Going out was more difficult, there were only a few places which would serve tolerable priced beers with most places being too extravagant for my student finances.
CERN
CERN is a unique experience; the size makes it like a small village. The research facility has a vast variety of physicists, engineers and workers all keeping the particles flowing and collisions recorded. It hosts thousands of scientists from around the globe and is at the forefront of particle physics research.
At first, it was daunting; I joined the ATLAS Level 1 Calorimeter trigger group and worked on the detector performance at photon identification. I had to quickly get to grips with how the detector works, how data is recorded and filtered, how to access data and what exactly “trigger efficiency” meant in this context. This was an intriguing challenge and over time I found my footing, developing new techniques that helped improve the group’s photon identification methods.
Research
As the whole of my time abroad was graded based upon my produced end of year report, presentation and viva, the work can become very niche. You learn an incredible amount from research, but this can also become very tailored to the work you are doing. I found that whilst it is good to throw yourself into the project, maintaining a general understanding on physics aids especially with the application for PhDs where I found a broader knowledge was tested within my interviews.
My schedule consisted of weekly group meetings where I presented the work I had completed that week, weekly meetings with my supervisor 1 to 1 discussing the direction of the project and necessary steps. Beyond that there was a lot of solo research. I developed my confidence in developing my own ideas about how to solve a problem and how I can present that to a group of people (usually much senior) to me. When presenting new methods to use within the group, the amount of attention to detail required to portray that the novel method functioned correctly showed me how meticulous one must be but also how much slower research can be than learning a course at university.
Beyond the Research
One of the highlights of my year was meeting other students, particularly second-year PhD candidates also on long-term research attachments. I found an amazing group of friends who became my go-to people for lunch breaks, weekend hikes, sports and everything in between.
With the expensive cost to go out in Geneva, most of the social activities happened in the form of cooking nights, boardgame nights, hosted parties or sports. I found that a typical week became sports approx. five days a week, hosted cooking evenings approx. once a week and board games approx. twice a week. Friday evenings were always spent in the CERN restaurant with a larger group catching up on the work week. In summer a lot more time was spent down by the lake, and there were events hosted such as a long-distance relay competition at CERN.
As Switzerland has connections everywhere I planned trips across Switzerland and Europe, visiting amazing places like Grindelwald, Istelwald and Vienna. There was an organised weeklong ski trip to Tignes for UK students on long term attachments which was a lot of fun, and I spent some weekends travelling to nearby resorts just for a day of skiing.
Overall
My year at CERN was a great experience. I got to work on real physics research, develop technical skills, and live in a completely new environment. While things like the cost of living and the learning curve were challenging, they were balanced by the people I met, the travel opportunities, and the day-to-day life of working at one of the world’s leading research labs. It was intense at times, but genuinely worthwhile.