Science outreach in Lithuania

During my long vacations in Lithuania, I decided to do some science outreach and I gave three presentations on my work at CERN.

First, on Saturday Jan 11th, I visited additional training physics school Fizikos Olimpas during its January session week in Vilnius. In somewhat cold lecture room (heating presumably turned off on weekends), there was a warm atmosphere and physics-oriented school-children from around the country listened to my talk and asked pointed questions.

On Monday Jan 13th, I gave a talk at Vilnius University Institute for Theoretical Physics and Astronomy upon kind invitation of local scientist dr. Darius Jurčiukonis. I was a bit nervous giving my first scientific talk in Lithuanian. The talk drew a sizable audience and interesting questions. I was also complimented on my Lithuanian translations of technical jargon. However, in the future I will probably stick to English to make my talk accessible to non-Lithuanian speakers working at or visiting Vilnius University.

Finally, on Wednesday Jan 15th I visited my former high-school Gabija in Mažeikiai. Here I was greeted by a large audience of 16-19 old school goers. Although a bit tired of loud talking (decided against using a mic), I was happy to answer a variety of questions about CERN and my work as a scientist. Afterwards, I was given a tour of school by deputy-head and my former physics teacher.