Visit to CERN, Geneva

6 Feb 2024

This visit to CERN was organised by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DfHERIS) and consisted of a delegation of stakeholders from across the Irish education and research landscape, including UCC Physics and Tyndall National Institute. 

The visit formed part of Ireland's ongoing preparations for CERN membership. 

Pictured above is Professor Paul Callanan, Head of School of Physics, UCC with parts of the LHC detectors in the background. A visit was allowed there as the LHC is currently down for maintenance, otherwise the radiation levels this close to the instrument are much too high.

The next picture was taken in front of the DELPHI experiment, which was one of the four main detectors on the Large-Electron-Positron collider at CERN, the predecessor to today's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). 

Along with Professor Paul Callanan, in the picture is Professor Sinead Ryan, Chair of Theoretical High Energy Physics and Head of the School of Mathematics at Trinity College Dublin. Professor Ryan is a UCC graduate, having completed her Physics MSc with the late Professor Niall O'Murchadha in 1993. 

In the next picture Professor Paul Callanan is with Professor Denjoe O'Connor, Senior Professor in the School of Theoretical Physics in the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies. Professor O'Connor is also a UCC Physics graduate.