More than 100 alumni and guests travelled to Geneva for an event at The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the international organisation which operates the world’s largest particle physics laboratory.
They were joined by the Vice-Chancellor and Lady Newby and Liverpool scientists based at CERN for a behind-the-scenes tour and reception, the second visit organised by the Philanthropy and Alumni Relations Team based in Corporate Communications.
The afternoon began with an introductory message in the Main Auditorium – where the Higgs Boson discovery was announced – from Paul Collier, who is CERN’s Head of Beams, and an address by the Vice-Chancellor.
A keynote lecture was given by Professor Themis Bowcock from the Department of Physics, who gave an overview of the University’s involvement with CERN and the significant contribution that Liverpool’s particle physics group have made to the field.
The visitors toured the facility taking in three sites, including the SM18 Magnet Assembly Area, the ATLAS experiment which Liverpool is centrally involved with, and the CMS experiment, which included the opportunity to go underground and see the Large Hadron Collider.
The event was part of a programme of particle physics activity for alumni, which was driven in part by the establishment at last year’s event of a PhD Studentship in particle physics in partnership with CERN.
For more information on alumni activities, visit: www.liverpool.ac.uk/alumni or to find out more about the PhD Studentship, visit: www.liverpool.ac.uk/giving/particle-physics.