CERN always has plenty of visitors, but never more so than in the summer, when the itinerant population is boosted by several hundred students from CERN member states and further afield. CERN’s Summer Student Programme offers undergraduate students in physics, computing and engineering a unique opportunity to join in the day-to-day work of research teams participating in experiments at CERN.
Beyond the outstanding first-class scientific value of their stay, the students find working in a multidisciplinary and multicultural environment an extremely enriching experience – an opportunity to make valuable and long lasting contacts with other students and scientists from all over Europe.
In addition to the work with the experimental teams, summer students attend a series of lectures specially prepared for them. Scientists from around the world share their knowledge about a range of topics in the fields of theoretical and experimental particle physics and related technologies.
Victor Weisskopf, field theory pioneer and CERN director-general in 1961-1965, had a particular interest in education. During his mandate as director-general, he gave a series of introductory lectures on particle physics (maintaining that “the best way to get a basic understanding of anything is to teach it”). For many years after he left CERN, Weisskopf returned every summer to address an eager audience. These lectures also developed into a book, Concepts of Particle Physics (two volumes), written with Kurt Gottfried.
Many generations of CERN summer student alumni vividly recall a relaxed Weisskopf recounting anecdotes about the early days of quantum mechanics. Among them is Melissa Franklin of Harvard (CERN summer student 1977), who lectured this year on “Classic experiments”. Sadly, Weisskopf seldom returns to CERN, but the tradition lives on.
