Can a summer be better?

CERN: A dream for every physicist, every student, since the day he/she starts learning about the basics of Science. The world is a game of Physics and it wouldn’t be wrong to say CERN has played a pivotal role in making understand this game to all.

My dad is a physicist too. He was the first one from whom I learnt about CERN when I was a kid in my 5^th grade. The stories he told me about how the universe could be made of. It was my dad’s dear wish to visit CERN someday but he could never get enough facilities and exposure, within the needs of my family, to come here. I am proud to say, I fulfilled his dream for him!

Being a summer student here is of course, not easy. I was aware of the CERN summer student programme, it’s just too popular on students’ blogs. I did not expect to be offered an internship here, but I was lucky enough to get it!

Truly speaking, I did not even do sufficient amount of work to my satisfaction here. But getting the opportunity to come here, get introduced to some of the best in the world, how they just discover things every now and then.. was a great achievement for me in itself.

Felipe’s birthday celebration at the grave of his favourite writer.. Jorge Luis Borges.. we read out his poems and short stories and cut a cake… who would think of a birthday celebration in a graveyard!!

I was privileged to get an extremely dedicated supervisor, Dr. Joao Guilherme. He made me start enjoying things that didn't seem very interesting before. Unlike the LHC experiments ISOLDE is not in the spotlight of the attention. Howeover, it has really good hard-working people who respect and discuss every member’s opinion and ideas.

My project was basically divided into two parts, one was to help improve a software called “Interlude” which they use in PAC (Perturbed Angular Correlation) Data reduction. The second was to fit data obtained for mercury and cadmium, for optimizing a technique to remove such heavy metals from polluted waters using magnetic nanoparticles coated with silicon and functionalized with activating binding groups (in my case, it was DTC : Dithiocarbamate). I did not contribute much to either of the two works within this time period but I understood what was needed and I would be working on them even after the end of this internship. I wanted to do some experiments, which I did not get a chance for but I understand that they are very complex and not very easy for someone without sufficient experience to perform. Still, I would have liked to have some hands-on-experience with some experiments.

Fun at Zermatt, Matterhorn and Interlaken..

I would love to be a part of CERN again for a longer period, if I get another chance, possibly for a PhD in here. I absolutely love the work culture here. Everything is so ordered and regulated and at your reach.

Moving away from work now, I believe Switzerland is the most popular destination for Indians, especially in summer. I got a completely paid stay, and that too at CERN, what more could I ask for! I made a lot of wonderful friends here from all over the world, whom I wish to meet again in the future. We are like a family here now, so close, that we do not even miss our families much. We cook together, travel together. Though am not sure if it is allowed under the summer student programme, we did go to a lot of places in and around Switzerland, like Interlaken, Zermatt, Chamonix, Paris etc. We had fabulous summer student parties, group hikes, dance sessions together. The best part in our time together was to learn each other’s culture, traditions, languages. At least, I could learn how to wish and thank people in French. J I would always cherish these moments we shared with each other.. helping in each other’s work, cooking and making each other eat our respective food (seriously, barely any of us can actually cook edible food), absolutely crazy birthday celebrations.

Truly, this was one of the best summers I had ever had.