Prime Highlights
- Five Belgian, Turkish, Canadian, Mexican, and American school teams chosen for Beamline for Schools 2025.
- To perform hands-on particle physics experiments at CERN, DESY, and ELSA.
Key Facts
- More than 508 proposals from 72 nations made this season the most competitive ever.
- This is the first time Belgian and Turkish teams have won.
Key Background
CERN’s Beamline for Schools (BL4S) competition is the world’s most highly regarded international student science competition, and it provides secondary school pupils with a unique chance to experiment on actual particle accelerator equipment. Introduced in 2014, BL4S seeks to inspire physics interest and encourage experiential STEM education globally.
A new record high of students participated in the contest this year, with over 3,500 students from 508 teams in 72 countries. Students crafted advanced experimental proposals and presentation videos. An international panel of physicists and educators judged the contest, choosing five exceptional teams based on scientific merit, creativity, and the ability to communicate.
The two top teams are “Spallateam” from Belgium and “Physical” from Türkiye, that will be performing experiments in CERN. “Dawson Technicolor” from Canada and “Pumas in Kollision” from Mexico will be performing research at the DESY laboratory in Germany. “Team XTReme” from the USA will be performing their research at the ELSA accelerator in the University of Bonn. Some of the areas the students will be covering include neutron production through spallation and radioactive waste treatment and muon detection, natural scintillator research, and transition radiation.
This competition not only increases student exposure to authentic scientific inquiry, but it also builds the next generation of engineers and physicists. The initiative is funded by the CERN & Society Foundation with donations from sponsors such as ROLEX’s Perpetual Planet Initiative and the Wilhelm & Else Heraeus Foundation. Apart from the grand experiment awards, there were awards for excellent science communication and outreach as well.
