Student’s Point of View Charilaos Tsarouchas National Technical University of Athens ECFA meeting Athens, 10 October 2008

Education 5 years of studies as undergraduate student (School of applied mathematics and physics) 2 years of studies as Ms student (Physics and Technological Applications) 1st year (now) of studies as doctoral student (home university NTUAthens) 1school year good theoretical background opportunities for technical knowledge deep research waters + 7 years of studies before PhD

The HEP footsteps July of 2005 summer student cern September 2005 MDT data analysis CSC/MDT DCS DCS, ATLAS commissioning and shifts B physics studies. Chib channel CSC: ATLAS muon subdetector DCS: detector control system MDT: ATLAS muon subdetector

MDT - BIS commissioning Geneva, summer of 1991, when www released to particle physics community …14 summers later in Geneva as cern summer student final assembly noise tests cosmic tests cosmic data analysis subdetector coherency Work done in bd. 283 cern MDT-BIS support:

Detector Control Systems ATLAS cavern, MDT support: ATLAS Endcap small wheel DCS Ensures the coherent and safe operation of the subdetectors Interaction with many detector people Knowledge of the hardware too

Detector Commissioning and Shifts Sometimes PhD tasks respond like light (!).. can have a dual nature… support: … work and fun in the same time ! Atlas control room 10/9/08 10:24 first circulated beam detection world in the pulse of LHC

Main PhD work support: Part of the altas b – physics group. Study of the meson through its decay: Studies of momentum distribution η, φ distributions reconstructed mass life time

Common students wanders “I search that bug 3 days now, I do not know what else to do …” “I will be paid for the next 6 months, but no idea after that …” “one year we stay apart, I do not thing it will last any more … ” “Sunday morning …, sorry I ll be on shift …” Below are some common student wanders, heard during coffee time “Hey I have my study results for 50 Kev isn’t it great !...” “you ‘ll not believe it, I ‘ll present in that conference in Hawaii !..” “my algorithm works!!...”

Regular PhD. student salary: equals to the Identity Element of “+” operation in real numbers group, or simply… Scholarships: some state/university scholarships, but very few positions for the application numbers (e.g. NTUA 6 scholarships for 67 PhD students in physics) Group budgets Spontaneous group funding for a few lucky students European funding e.g. Marie Curie position in laboratories e.g. CERN tech./doc. students, DESY, Brookheaven part – time job PhD in another university abroad (USA, Europe) Funding Other Solutions 0 Last but not Least …

The last 4 bullets High Energy Physics is a really exciting field to study, strain your limits A students’ point of view, conclusion… Like all nice things, it is difficult, demanding Things more complicated when concern social life, career, fixed post code … just follow your heart