On March 5, 2015, the Institute of Physics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) will be opening its doors and inviting interested school students to try their hand at particle physics for a day. At the event, which is part of the International Masterclasses, students in Mainz will be able to analyze data from the world’s most powerful particle accelerator – the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, which will resume operations in March 2015.

Every year, the International Masterclasses bring together more than 10,000 students at universities in 42 countries to gain an insight into the world of Particle Physics. The Institute of Physics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz is also taking part once again. The basic idea of the program is that the students largely work like researchers themselves. “The young people can analyze original data from the LHC together with scientists. The International Masterclasses give them an impression of everyday life in modern physics research,” says Michael Kobel, physics professor at TU Dresden and head of the program.

A total of 210 universities and research institutes in 42 countries are taking part in the International Masterclasses. The worldwide participation also reflects the international cooperation that is so typical of Particle Physics. The participating young people can experience this facet of research in practice in a video conference. In the conference call, the group of students from Mainz can present and discuss their data with students at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen and at CERN – just as the researchers do in their international collaborations. This gives the students authentic impressions of everyday research in Particle Physics.

The project manager of the International Masterclasses is based at TU Dresden. The organizer is IPPOG, the International Particle Physics Outreach Group, an independent committee made up of substitutes from the countries conducting research at CERN as well as CERN and DESY. The aim of the group is to make Particle Physics accessible to a wider public.

Interested members of the media are cordially invited to attend the International Masterclass at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz on March 5, 2015. For further information and registration please send an e-mail to c.schneider@uni-mainz.de.