For the 19th year running, CERN is offering Maltese nationals the opportunity to participate in the CERN Summer Student Programme. This programme offers undergraduate students of physics, computing and engineering a unique chance to follow a specialised lecture series and to collaborate with research teams participating in experiments at CERN. Beyond the outstanding first-class scientific value of this experience, the selected students will find collaborating with CERN scientists an extremely enriching personal experience. 

Students eligible to apply include: 

1. Current 3rd or 4th year undergraduate students from the Faculty of Science with a major in Physics 
2. Current 3rd or 4th year undergraduate students from the Faculty of Engineering
3. Current 3rd year undergraduate students from the Faculty of ICT; or 3rd or 4th year undergraduate students from Faculty of Science with a major in Computing.

One student from physics; ICT/computing and; electrical/mechanical engineering will be nominated by the University of Malta and awarded a grant to participate in the programme. 

Eligible students who are interested in being considered by the University of Malta for this opportunity are to send: 

1. A letter of motivation clearly indicating their areas of interest
2. A copy of their CV (including email address and telephone number)
3. An unofficial course transcript to date (including average marks) of all current and past degrees
4. Any other information that they consider to be relevant. 

The above are to be sent to nicholas.sammut@um.edu.mt, by not later than Tuesday 17 December 2024. Final year students and students with average weighted marks of 70 and over will be given priority.

Background information: CERN 

The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) is an international organisation that performs non-military fundamental research. It is situated on the Franco-Swiss border close to Geneva. Since 1954, its model for cooperation, has become a shining example of international collaboration world-wide bringing together 6500 top-notch physicists, engineers and computer scientists from over 600 institutions in over 70 countries. It is the largest laboratory of its kind in the world and it is currently upgrading the largest and most powerful scientific instrument ever constructed by mankind; a particle accelerator known as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). 

The LHC is 27 km long and acts like a giant microscope to understand better the laws of nature, particularly the composition of matter and the forces that act on it. It is a scientific colossus which started in 1982 and was launched in 2008. Not only is it a scientific and political challenge but a financial one too: in total the LHC cost around 8 billion Euros. This cutting-edge technology may have profound implications in physics, engineering, computing and medicine ranging from the infinitely small (nanotechnology) to the infinitely large (cosmology).