Last 10 February, on the occasion of the International Day of Women in Science, the Physics Department of the University of Rome "Tor Vergata" and the INFN Section Roma2 hosted as many as 33 female students from 12 high schools in the Rome and Lazio area (even from Tarquinia!) for the CERN ATLAS Masterclass: a unique opportunity to become a particle physicist for a day!
The event started at 8:30 and finished at 17:30. After a brief introduction we connected with Dr. Alessia Bruni (INFN Bologna and member of the ATLAS experiment) who spoke to the female students recounting her personal experience as a woman in science and underlining the evolution of her role in recent years, especially in large scientific collaborations such as the ATLAS experiment.
The students then attended introductory seminars which enabled them to analyze first-hand some events collected by ATLAS with the aim of identifying and reconstructing the properties of the Z boson and the Higgs boson.
The event ended with a videoconference connection with CERN where the students interacted with the moderators and with other students from Prague, Valencia and Rome Sapienza, presenting and discussing the results obtained.
A day of great participation and great success!
