2023 European Researchers' Night
"The 2023 European Researchers' Night was for us one of the most demanding and successful ever. Thank you to the fantastic teams in the 3 LIP nodes, the excellent organisations and the many enthusiastic visitors!"
Thanks to the committed participation of many LIP volunteers, we were at 5 venues at the same time, all of them very busy. Thank you to the fantastic teams in the 3 LIP nodes, the excellent organisations and the many enthusiastic visitors!
From north to south, LIP was in Braga (Forum Altice), downtown Coimbra and three venues in Lisbon: Pavilhão do Conhecimento, Museu de História Natural e da Ciência and Fundação Champalimaud.
We highlight and thank the committed participation. In all, 43 volunteers were in the various LIP stands. Without them, it wouldn't have been possible. It was also a varied team, in which the three nodes and various groups in the LIP community were represented: researchers, technical and administrative staff, students - many students, several of them newcomers to LIP. Here's a list of names, with a heartfelt thank you to everyone!
It was almost midnight and neither the many young people on the team nor the visitors showed any signs of waning. Nuno Castro wrote at the time: "The dedication of the volunteers was particularly remarkable. There were no shifts, everyone was here from 3 pm until now... our students, but also former trainees and students from the school [with which we collaborate]." It wasn't until after midnight that the team finally had time to take a photo with "their" cosmic muon.
In Coimbra, where João Saraiva accepted the challenge of coordinating LIP’s participation, people from different LIP groups took part. Several topics were covered, with a focus on particle detection. Once again, the spark camera played a central role, and we highlight in the photo a cosmic ray caught (without any tricks!) landing in downtown Coimbra.
At the Pavilion of Knowledge, in a stand dedicated to the LHC, there was a team with many colleagues from ATLAS but also from CMS and SHiP/SND@LHC. In the words of the coordinator, Patricia Conde: "We had very small children, which at first was scaring, but the enthusiasm [of some of the group members] was great for breaking the ice, and it went beautifully." Particularly successful were the Lego (see Ciência Viva video), the sparklers, the puzzle and the augmented reality app. We also highlight the great participation of Patricia's children, Susana and David!
At the Museum, cosmic rays were the theme in the spotlight, with the construction of fog chambers and virtual tours of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The already experienced Matteo Pisano and Luís Afonso were joined by Beatriz Amorim and Afonso Vicente, two young students from LIP's NUC-RIA group, who were an invaluable help. At the end of the day, there was a debate about how many hundreds of people had passed through. That's certainly a good sign. In the photo, we see the whole team gathered and at work.
LIP's participation in the Champalimaud Foundation's NEI was a first, and health was the chosen theme. LIP's space was joined by an excellent exhibition/activity on disinformation (in health and beyond) developed by the SPAC group (in collaboration with a company) especially for NEI - and, of course, for later use. They were joined by the RADART group with the prototype of an optical fibres detector that aims to be a very useful tool to help us better understand the effects of radiation at cell scale.
ATLAS LEGO video: https://twitter.com/cienciaviva/status/1707834993139961931
Photo album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/197772640@N07