Key senior scientists from the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) will be delivering two public lectures in Malta about the recent discoveries of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC): the largest and most powerful scientific instrument ever constructed by mankind. The LHC is situated on the Franco-Swiss border and is 27 km long. It cost €7.5 billion and took 24 years to be designed and built. Its goal is to study the composition of matter and forces that bind it together.
Also known as the Big Bang machine, the LHC led to the discovery of the Higgs Boson which was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2013. Recently CERN also announced that the LHC may have started to see something new and unforeseen.
The most famous spin-off technology that was invented at CERN is the World Wide Web which revolutionised the way we communicate and ushered mankind into the information age. Other important technologies include Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and other medical imaging techniques.
The public lectures are being organised as part of an international meeting hosted by the University of Malta (UoM) and led by CERN. 85 senior scientists from all the major European Organisations in the field including PSI, DESY, CEA, CNRS, ESS, GFI, INFN, SOLEIL, STFC and HZB will be attending. Dr Ing. Nicholas Sammut, Dr Ing. Pierluigi Mollicone and Dr Marija Cauchi from the University of Malta’s Faculty of ICT and from the Faculty of Engineering form the local organising scientific committee.
A collaboration agreement signed by University of Malta in 2003 and another cooperation agreement signed by the Government of Malta in 2008 enabled 5 University of Malta Ph.D. students and 3 University of Malta Master students to conduct their research while residing at the CERN labs. This helped them gain unprecedented access to equipment in an international setting. Another 28 University of Malta students also attended the prestigious CERN Summer Student Programme thanks to these agreements.
The first lecture is aimed at the general public and is purposely intended for people without prior knowledge in science. The event will last one hour followed by refreshments and is free of charge. It will be held in the auditorium of the Faculty of ICT building at University of Malta Msida Campus on Monday 25 April at 18:15.
A second free lecture is intended for academics, scientists, engineers and students and will be held on Thursday 28 April at 17:00 in the Auditorium of the Faculty of ICT building at University of Malta Msida Campus.
For more information send an email to nicholas.sammut@um.edu.mt
The meeting is supported through the FP7 EUCARD-2 'Enhanced European Coordination for Accelerator Research and Development' which is co-funded by the partners and the European Commission under Capacities 7th Framework Programme, Grant Agreement 312453.
