Leading particle physicist returns home to meet with aspiring young scientists
Professor Alan Barr, a leading particle physicist from the University of Oxford, returned to County Londonderry to meet aspiring young scientists at Limavady Grammar.
29 March 2023 – Alan Barr, leading particle physicist from the University of Oxford, returned to County Londonderry, where he grew up to inspire the next generation in the quest to answer some of science’s biggest questions and to continue to revolutionise the way we understand the Universe.
He met sixth-form students at Limavady Grammar School, where his mother formerly taught, to show them coding methods used by particle physicists and to enlighten them about the Standard Model of matter.
It’s about finding things out yourselves and we just want to offer the opportunity for these students to be able to take cutting edge scientific data and explore their own questions. They could very well find out something that not only have we not found out, but we didn’t even think about asking the question.
The students were invited along with four other UK schools to take part in the Particle Physics Masterclass at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in Oxford, a national scientific research laboratory operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council. Due to the cost of the trip, the school was unable to attend. Barr decided to bring the day course to the students.
Speaking with BBC Radio Ulster about his trip, Alan said:
“Well, we can try and make sure that we can get students come to us sometimes, but sometimes we go to them. Obviously we don’t have a big particle smasher in Limavady, but we can still go through everything else that we were doing with them and it’s gonna be a great opportunity to find out what they’ve been up to.”
Professor Barr working with Limavady students in their labSpeaking with BBC Radio Ulster about his trip home to visit Limavady Grammar, Barr explained the value of students taking part in research whilst still in school.
“It’s about finding things out yourselves and we just want to offer the opportunity for these students to be able to take cutting edge scientific data and explore their own questions. They could very well find out something that not only have we not found out, but we didn’t even think about asking the question.”