ALICE in Wonderland: St Petersburg University scientists talk about their work at CERN
The solemn opening ceremony of the exhibition "30th anniversary of St Petersburg University participation in the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN" has been held at the University. The visitors were introduced to the photographic materials illustrating the history of the project. They also learned about the main areas of collaboration of the Laboratory of Ultra-High Energy Physics at St Petersburg University.
‘I often hear that fundamental science is far away from our real life. Yet if we look at the ALICE project, we will see how what we have been doing has led to quite practical results that we use in everyday life,’ said Sergey Mikushev, Vice-Rector for Research at St Petersburg University. ‘This exposition presents materials that reflect the importance of the research that the outstanding scientists have been working on for 30 years.’
ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is one of the experimental detectors at the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). Its purpose is to study the quark-gluon plasma, i.e. a special state of the matter in which the Universe was in the first microsecond after the Big Bang. The project was developed in 1992. Sixteen years later, the detector was launched.
Sergey Andryushin, Deputy Rector for International Affairs at St Petersburg University, said that during the existence of the ALICE experiment, the University had made a great contribution to the development of science and international cooperation. ‘Participation in this project was the first step towards the integration of our country and the University into the international scientific and educational space after the collapse of the USSR. For 30 years, our scientists have gained authority and confirmed that St Petersburg University takes a leading position in the world of science and education,’ Sergey Andryushin said. ‘I am sure that in the next decade, we will successfully participate in many other international scientific projects, using the experience that the scientists have accumulated. The groundwork that you have created over the years will become the basis for a breakthrough in the development of cooperation with leading research centres in the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, and Africa.’
The ALICE collaboration includes researchers from 172 institutes around the world, including research teams from 12 Russian universities, including St Petersburg University. The group of the University is mainly represented by a new generation of physicists who are about 35 years old.
As Aleksei Titov, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Physics at St Petersburg University, said, the main mission of the University is to educate young people by immersing them in science.
From the very beginning, the ALICE collaboration was not conceived as a game of great minds and outstanding scientists. It has always attracted students and postgraduate students. This is how it works even today. We have grown more than one generation of world-class researchers who are in demand all over the world.
Aleksei Titov, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Physics at St Petersburg University
Aleksei Titov added that the University is actively working with schoolchildren. The University has summer internships, career guidance, and workshops for future scientists.
At the end of the opening ceremony of the exhibition, Grigory Feofilov, Head of the Laboratory of Ultra-High Energy and Elementary Particle Physics at St Petersburg University, offered a tour for visitors where he talked about the history of the detector, its features, and shared plans for working on the experiment for the nearest future.