{"id":26981,"date":"2025-07-09T17:58:59","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T12:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=26981"},"modified":"2025-07-09T17:59:02","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T12:14:02","slug":"students-from-belgium-canada-mexico-turkiye-and-the-usa-win-the-12th-edition-of-beamline-for-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/students-from-belgium-canada-mexico-turkiye-and-the-usa-win-the-12th-edition-of-beamline-for-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Students from Belgium, Canada, Mexico, T\u00fcrkiye, and the USA win the 12th edition of Beamline for Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

RevoScience<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

Five teams of<\/em>\u00a0secondary school pupils\u00a0have been selected to carry out their own experiments using accelerator beams at CERN,<\/em>\u00a0DESY,<\/em><\/strong> and the University of\u00a0Bonn<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Winners of the 2025 CERN Beamline for Schools competition: \u201cDawson Technicolor\u201d from Canada (top left), \u201cPumas in Kollision\u201d from Mexico (top right), \u201cPhysical\u201d from T\u00fcrkiye (bottom left), \u201cthe Spallateam\u201d from Belgium (bottom centre), and \u201cteam XTReme\u201d from the USA (bottom right) (Images: Dawson Technicolor, Pumas in Kollision, Physical, the Spallateam, team XTReme)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Geneva, Hamburg, and Bonn. Beamline for Schools (BL4S)<\/a>\u00a0is a physics competition initiated by CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, and open to secondary school pupils from around the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participants are invited to submit a proposal for a physics experiment to be undertaken at the beamline of a particle accelerator, either at CERN or at one of the partner institutes:\u00a0DESY<\/a>\u00a0(Deutsches\u00a0Elektronen-Synchrotron in Hamburg, Germany) and\u00a0ELSA<\/a>\u00a0(Elektronen-Stretcher-Anlage of the University of Bonn, Germany). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2025, a record number of five winning teams were chosen, based on both the scientific merit of their proposals and the communication merit of their submission video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Spallateam,\u201d a team from the\u00a0Coll\u00e8ge Cardinal Mercier<\/a>\u00a0in Belgium, and the team \u201cPhysical,\u201d from\u00a0Ca\u011falo\u011flu Anadolu Lisesi<\/a>\u00a0in T\u00fcrkiye, will travel to CERN in September 2025 to perform their proposed experiments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teams \u201cDawson Technicolor\u201d from\u00a0Dawson College<\/a>\u00a0in Canada and \u201cPumas in Kollision\u201d from\u00a0Escuela Nacional Preparatoria N\u00b0 6 “Antonio Caso”\u00a0<\/a>in Mexico will carry out their experiment at a DESY beamline, while \u201cTeam XTReme\u201d from\u00a0Centennial High School<\/a>\u00a0in the USA will be welcomed at the University of Bonn. It is the first time that teams from Belgium and T\u00fcrkiye have won the competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A beamline is a facility that provides high-energy fluxes of subatomic particles that can be used to conduct experiments in different fields, including fundamental physics, material science and medicine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The participation rate has been rising consistently since the launch of Beamline for Schools in 2014, with a record number of 508 teams from 72 countries submitting an experiment proposal in 2025. More than 3500 high-school students participated this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYear after year, we keep being amazed by the quality of the students\u2019 proposals,\u201d says Charlotte Warakaulle, CERN Director for International Relations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEducation is at the core of our mission, and the consistent growth in the number of students taking part in the competition demonstrates the strong interest of students in science, technology, engineering, and math. We want to nurture this interest and talent, and we are looking forward to welcoming the winners on site!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fruitful collaboration between CERN and DESY started in 2019 during a long shutdown period of the CERN accelerators. This is the sixth year that the German laboratory has hosted competition winners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beate Heinemann, chair of DESY\u2019s Board of Directors, adds, \u201cMy heartfelt congratulations not only to this year\u2019s winners but also to all the other participants. You got together and worked as teams for your proposals \u2013 such teamwork is the first step towards great science!\u00a0I look forward to welcoming the Canadian and Mexican teams at DESY and hope they will find answers to their scientific questions using the DESY beamlines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time this year, the University of Bonn will also be welcoming a team that will use its electron accelerator ELSA.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the University of Bonn, we are proud to contribute the ELSA beam for the first time and very much look forward to hosting a winning team. I am very impressed by the proposal of Team XTReme, and we will do our best to provide them with a good experimental environment. We know that the BL4S participants of today are the scientists of tomorrow,\u201d says Professor Klaus Desch, who is in charge of the ELSA accelerator facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur team proposes to compare the numbers of neutrons emitted by two different spallation targets. The first, a homogeneous target, would be made of a heavy metal: tungsten. The second target would be composite: tungsten combined with elements of aluminum (a light metal). We are hoping for an increase in neutrons in the second case,\u201d says \u201cthe Spallateam,\u201d from Belgium. \u201cWe cannot wait to conduct our experiment at CERN!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur experiment focuses on optimizing nuclear spallation by investigating how different target materials and their thicknesses affect neutron yield. This research could inform future methods for radioactive waste reduction and sustainable neutron source design. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being selected to conduct our experiment at CERN feels surreal; it was beyond our dreams. Getting to be at the heart of scientific discovery, not as observers but as contributors, is the most meaningful moment of our lives so far,\u201d says Defne Karao\u011fluol from the Turkish \u201cPhysical\u201d team.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur experiment aims to observe the trajectories of muons with a three-dimensional scintillator-based detector, the Scintillating Chamber,\u201d says Danah D\u00e9z\u00e9m\u00e9 from the Canadian \u201cDawson Technicolor\u201d team. \u201cThe opportunity that has been presented to us fills us with so much excitement and anticipation for the future of the Scintillating Chamber as well as for the future of particle physics as a whole!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur project explores the use of kidneywood pigment and fluorite as scintillating media, combining scientific inquiry with cultural heritage,\u201d explains Pumas in Kollision, the team from Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe aim to demonstrate that it is possible to propose new alternatives to standard procedures, thereby making them more accessible and adaptable for laboratories with limited infrastructure. Winning meant to all of us that the effort we invested was completely worth it, and we’re very excited to be able to work with world-class scientists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur project investigates the production of transition radiation as high-energy electrons pass through multilayer dielectric interfaces,\u201d says Team XTReme, from the USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s almost surreal to think that we’ve made it to the point where we get to push the boundaries of particle physics through hands-on experimentation at ELSA. We’re grateful to the whole BL4S organization for making this happen, and we’re so excited for this opportunity!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winning proposals were selected by a committee of CERN, DESY, and ELSA scientists from a shortlist of 50 particularly promising experiments. In addition, three teams will be recognized for the most creative video proposals, and another 15 teams for the quality of their physics outreach activities in their local communities, taking advantage of the knowledge they have gained by participating in BL4S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beamline for Schools is an education and outreach project funded by the\u00a0CERN & Society <\/a>Foundation\u2019s\u00a0donors. This 12th edition is supported notably by ROLEX through its Perpetual Planet Initiative and by the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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