We prepare an ECGD newsletter, which the LHCb secretariat kindly attaches to the Weekly News that they circulate every Friday afternoon. For ease of access, we also collect these newsletters here below.
Please contact us if you have news that you would like us to include into one of our upcoming newsletters.
2022:
- 19 December 2022
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Mental Health workshop at CERN
The ATLAS Early Career Scientist Board is origanising the second Mental Health workshop on 15th February 2023. The workshop will be run by Sarah Speziali, a therapist and life coach who has extensive experience raising awareness about mental health in the workplace. Even though the workshop is organized by ATLAS, all CERN-associated early career scientists are welcome to participate (in person or remotely). Registration and more info on:
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1196592/ - 9 December 2022
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Follow-up on this week's ECGD session on Mental Health and Wellbeing
This week's ECGD session focused on the complex and extensive topic of mental health and wellbeing, and we opted for a format of invited external expert speakers delivering a mini-workshop. Katia Schenke and Sebastien Tubau from the CERN Medical Service gave a presentation on stress and related complications such as anxiety and burnout, and suggested a practical method to control the effects of stress on a personal level, with the technique of cardiac coherence and self-regulated breathing. Many interesting issues came up during the session and further questions, suggestions and criticisms were raised in the jamboard. We would like to thank everyone for their participation and input. The jamboard comments are now attached to the session’s agenda in indico:
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1221146/#b-487169-ecgdThe impression is that the topic is far from exhausted, it affects many of us on a personal level but also has roots in our working culture and systems of employment. While we focused on personal solutions in the session, there was no time to touch on the systemic side of the issue, which remains relevant and important. We are open to further suggestions on how to deepen the discussion and approach the topic in the future. The ECGD officers remain available for contact by everyone in the collaborations (confidentially if needed), and this includes help with issues related to mental health and wellbeing.
- 2 December 2022
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ECGD session on mental health and wellbeing - possibility to submit questions
At the December LHCb week next week we will have the ECGD session on Wednesday 7th December, 16:30-18:00 CEST, both in person and on zoom. The session is dedicated to the topic of mental health and wellbeing and will host two external speakers, the psychologists Katia Schenke and Sebastien Paul Tibau from the CERN Medical Service. You can still submit questions to the speakers by Monday (December 5) via the Q and A form:
https://liveqna.web.cern.ch/event/BqZKJY - 25 November 2022
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ECGD session on mental health and wellbeing - possibility to submit questions
The next EGCD session will be dedicated to the topic of mental health and wellbeing and we have invited two external speakers, the psychologists Katia Schenke and Sebastien Paul Tibau from the CERN Medical Service. You are invited to submit questions to the speakers by next Friday (December 2) via the Q and A form:
https://liveqna.web.cern.ch/event/BqZKJYThe ECGD session on mental health and wellbeing will be held during the LHCb week on Wednesday 7 December at 16:30-18:00 CET, both in person and on zoom.
- 18 November 2022
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International LGBTQ+STEM day
Today, November 18th, is the LGBTQ+STEM day. As in previous years, the LHCb logo on the LHCb public page and on social media has been changed for the day. You may find more information in:
https://prideinstem.org/lgbtstemday/LHC Career Networking event
The annual LHC Career Networking event will take place next Monday, 21 November from 16.00 CET:
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1203356/This event offers an insight into career opportunities outside of academia. Various former members of the LHC collaborations will give presentations and elaborate on their experience in companies in a diverse range of fields. The event accepts participants from all experiments and all sectors at CERN as well as CERN Alumni.
- 11 November 2022
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Upcoming events
Upcoming events: Nov. 22 – "Gender, intersectionality and inclusion in the EU research market" is the topic of the European Platform of Women Scientists annual conference:
https://epws.org/Annual-Conference-2022 - 4 November 2022
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Women Of the World in Physics international conference
The first international online conference WOW Physics! (Women Of the World in Physics!) will take place from Nov 9 to 11, 2022 on zoom and will be hosted by Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. WOW Physics! will honor inspiring women in physics and celebrate their outstanding contributions in science. The conference will gather physicists from all over the world and all stages of their careers who work on theoretical and experimental aspects of different physics fields. There will also be a round table with the plenary speakers to discuss their career paths, the hurdles they had to overcome at different stages of their career and how they managed to do so. For more information and registration:
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1108414/ - 28 October 2022
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LHC Career Networking event
Registration is now open for the 2022 LHC Career Networking event which will take place on Monday 21 November 2022. The event offers an insight into career opportunities outside of academia. Various former members of the LHC collaborations will give presentations and elaborate on their experience in companies in a diverse range of fields. The event is supported by the ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb Collaborations, however participants from all experiments and all sectors at CERN as well as CERN Alumni are welcome. For further information and obligatory registration please go to:
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1203356/Upcoming CERN Alumni events:
- 4 November – Virtual Company Showroom with Blue Brain: https://alumni.cern/events/98227
- 21 October 2022
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A new step on the path towards gender equality at CERN
The CERN Management formally endorsed CERN’s work on gender equality as constituting a Gender Equality Plan (GEP), as defined by the European Commission, signaling the Organization’s commitment to gender equality:
https://home.cern/news/opinion/cern/new-step-path-towards-gender-equality-cernUpcoming CERN Alumni events:
- 27 October – News from the Lab with our colleagues from the Knowledge Transfer group: https://alumni.cern/events/96511
- 27 October – Virtual Company Showroom with FactoryPal: https://alumni.cern/events/96582
- 14 October 2022
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Upcoming Events
- 21 October – Moving Out of Academia to Big Tech – a CERN Alumni event with CERN alumni panellists working at Google, Apple, Microsoft and Meta and with a focus on interview tips: https://alumni.cern/events/93818
- 21 October - Virtual company showroom – a CERN Alumni event with Medidee, MedTech consultancy company headquartered in Lausanne: https://alumni.cern/events/96561
- 26 October - The Early-Career Instrumentation Forum – panel discussion and networking event on careers in instrumentation, hosted by the ECFA Early-Career Researcher Panel: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1203836/
- 7 October 2022
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Accessibility at CERN
An inventory of building entrances accessible to people with disabilities is now available on the CERN maps page https://maps.web.cern.ch/ in the “Accessibility” menu. Thanks to an on-site survey of more than 1800 entrances of all CERN sites, 1150 of them were found to meet the Swiss/French criteria for accessibility for people with reduced mobility, based on HSE document 1810359.
ECFA Early Career Researchers survey
The ECFA Early-Career Researchers panel have created a survey to collect information about the career prospects, diversity in physics, work-life balance, and recognition of early career researchers in particle physics. They invite all junior researchers (students, post-docs, non-tenured/non-permanent researchers and engineers) to fill out the survey at:
https://forms.gle/926PfLnBecaMp2dp8The survey is anonymous and the end date is 11th of October.
They will then review the feedback and prepare to present it on behalf of the early career researcher community and compile a report on the findings, which will be made publicly available.
- 30 September 2022
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LHC Early Career Mentorship Programme is open for applications
The goal of the LHC Early Career Mentorship Programme is to connect young scientists who are interested in a career in research with researchers who are established in the field, in a strictly confidential setting. Each mentee-mentor relationship will have its own set of specific goals, as proposed by the mentee and agreed upon with the mentor. The programme is open to all researchers working on a CERN experiment, regardless of demographics.
If you are an early-career researcher and think you will benefit from advice from an experienced researcher about the next steps in your career, or if you are an experienced researcher who is willing to help out an early-career researcher develop their professional skills, then this is the right programme for you.
More info on: https://lhc-mentoring.web.cern.ch/
The application forms are available at:
Mentors: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1194453 (until Friday October 21st)
(mentors who wish to mentor someone affected by the war in Ukraine can apply all year round)
Mentees: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1194456/ (from Monday 24th October until Friday November 18th)
- 23 September 2022
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Upcoming CERN Alumni events
30 September at 11:00 CET - Virtual Company Showroom with Google: https://alumni.cern/events/95312
Why counter-stereotypical female role models are so important
An article discusses the underrepresentation of women in professions such as STEM, the gender pay gap and lack of female role models in these industries, by analysing data from surveys: https://wearetechwomen.com/why-counter-stereotypical-female-role-models-are-so-important/
- 16 September 2022
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Next "Coffee with…" event, Tuesday September 20
The registration for the next "Coffee with…" event is now open. This is an opportunity to spend half an hour chatting with nice people, some of whom you might have never met otherwise. It will take place next Tuesday, September 20, between 13:30-14:00 CET (right before the Tuesday meeting).
This is how it works: you register at https://indico.cern.ch/event/1200880/
by Monday evening (just before the event) at the latest. We take the list of all registrations, split it "randomly" into small groups of participants and assign each group to a separate zoom room.
We'll send you the link to your zoom room on Tuesday morning.
CERN alumni events
The CERN alumni event series Virtual Company Showroom is now organised regularly and connects alumni with companies who are keen to recruit people with skills developed at CERN. Companies talk about their current openings, the application process, how it is to work there and alumni have an opportunity to ask their questions.
Here is the agenda for this autumn so far:
·VDL ETG, 16 September: https://alumni.cern/events/93384
·Argusa, 23 September: https://alumni.cern/events/88017
·Google, 30 September
·Advantics, 7 October
·Medidee, 21 October
·Factory Pal, 28 October
More info at: https://alumni.cern/
- 9 September 2022
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Follow-up on this week's ECGD session on Regional representation in positions of responsibility in LHCb
This week we had the ECGD session focused on a complex topic and while we had a very fruitful discussion about some aspects, there are still a lot others that we didn’t have the time to bring up. Many interesting things came up during the discussion and further questions and suggestions were raised in the jamboard. We would like to thank the panelists and audience for their participation and for the jamboard reactions. The common impression is that we didn't have enough time to discuss everything. We are thinking about the best way and timing to continue the discussion, and we will inform the collaboration later.
The jamboard comments are now attached to the session’s agenda in indico:
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1162493/#b-475723-ecgd
CERN Women In Technology Talk 25 by’25
For those at CERN, there will be a WIT Talk with Louise Carvalho (CERN Diversity & Inclusion Programme Leader) on Tue 13th Sept at 12h15 in the IT Amphitheatre, to discuss the progress of the 25by’25 initiative.
You may submit your questions before the event here: https://liveqna.web.cern.ch/event/yYgRQq
More details in the indico page: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1172655/
- 2 September 2022
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ECGD session at the Dortmund LHCb week on 7th September
At the Dortmund LHCb week next week we will have the ECGD session on Wednesday 7th September, 14:45-15:45 CEST, both in person and remotely. The session is dedicated to a first look and discussion of the representation in roles of responsibility in the collaboration among different geographical regions. After presenting the statistics, there will be a panel and Q&A session with panelists from different geographical regions.
Looking forward to seeing many of you there!
The agenda is at: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1162493/#b-475723-ecgd
Laura Bassi initiative meeting at the Dortmund LHCb week
The next Laura Bassi initiative meeting will be held during Dortmund LHCb week on Wednesday 7th September at 13:00 CEST, in person and remotely. Miriam Lucio will lead a discussion on the possibility of setting up an "ask me anything" support network for young researchers.
- 29 July 2022
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Citations in science are biased towards a handful of nations – and the gap is growing
Scientists from a handful of “core” countries tend to be cited much more than those working in “periphery” nations. The analysis by sociologists finds that this citation gap is largest in the physical sciences – and that it is growing across all scientific fields. This inequality and lack of diversity in geographical spread of science could impact the spread of knowledge and the growth of new ideas.
- 22 July 2022
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LHCb Newcomers Welcome Event
An LHCb Newcomers Welcome Event will be held at the next Tuesday meeting on 26 July. It will include an introduction to the LHCb organisation, the ECGD office and the LHCb secretariat and is aimed at new and recent members of the collaboration:
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1174649/
LHCb PhD Thesis and Early-Career Scientist Awards in the CERN Bulletin
The winners of the LHCb 2022 awards for PhD Thesis and Early Career Scientists were reported in an article in the CERN Bulletin:
https://home.cern/news/news/experiments/lhcb-2022-phd-thesis-and-early-career-scientist-awards
- 15 July 2022
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More women in science and technology in the EU
Eurostat has published in May some statistics on the number of people employed in science and technology in the EU and the distribution between men and women. In 2021, of the 74 million people in the EU aged 15 to 74 employed in science and technology, 52% were women, +4% compared with 2020 and +26% compared with 2011. Data show that the female workforce grew more than their male counterparts (+1% compared with 2020 and +16% compared with 2011). There is also a breakdown of the percentage of women in science by country regions.
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20220513-1
- 8 July 2022
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Beware survivorship bias in advice on science careers
Much of our success comes from luck and circumstances in addition to the hard work.
For objective careers advice, talk to those who left science as well as those who stayed.
- 1 July 2022
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CERN colloquium on “Legacies of racism and sexism in science”
Science journalist Angela Saini will explore the history of deep-rooted prejudices around gender and race that pervaded the birth of modern Western science, and the legacies those prejudices have left in modern-day biology and medicine.
Connection and location details on the Indico page: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1176078/
- 24 June 2022
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Next "Coffee with..." event on Tuesday 28 June
The registration for the next "Coffee with …" event is now open. This is an opportunity to spend half an hour chatting with nice people, some of whom you might have never met otherwise. It will take place next Tuesday, June 28, between 13:30-14:00 CET (right before the Tuesday meeting).
This is how it works: you register at https://indico.cern.ch/event/1174156/
by Monday evening (just before the event) at the latest. We take the list of all registrations, split it "randomly" into small groups of participants and assign each group to a separate zoom room.
We'll send you the link to your zoom room on Tuesday morning.
Women in Technology talk on progress of the CERN 25by’25 initiative
The WIT community has invited Louise Carvalho – Diversity & Inclusion Programme Leader – to share the progress of the 25by’25 initiative on Wednesday 29 June in the IT Amphitheatre at CERN. Louise will explain how the strategy of CERN’s first ever gender target initiative was designed and is being implemented.
More details in the indico page: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1172655/
- 10 June 2022
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ECGD session at the 104th LHCb week on 14th June
An eventful LHCb week is coming up, with the ECGD session on Tuesday 14th June, 16:45-18:30 CEST in the Globe and remotely. The ECGD session will feature a talk from Melania Coletta (CERN) on the CERN Diversity and Inclusion programme which will be open for questions, followed by the award ceremonies for the LHCb Early Career Scientist Award and the LHCb Thesis Award. Looking forward to seeing you there.
The agenda is at: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1160084/#b-461964-ecgd-collaboration-pr
Laura Bassi meeting during LHCb week
The Laura Bassi meeting will be held on Thursday lunch-time of LHCb week, 16th June, 12:45-13:45 CEST in building 40 (next to the filtration plant), room 40/R-A10.
More details on the event and on the Laura Bassi initiative at: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1168758/
LHC Soft Skills Workshop: What I wish I knew when I was a PhD student/postdoc
The next (sixth) LHC soft skill workshop will be held online on 17th June at 15:00-17:00 CEST: "What I wish I knew when I was a Ph.D. student/postdoc".
Registration is on the indico page: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1154668/
- 3 June 2022
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LHC Soft Skills Workshop: What I wish I knew when I was a PhD student/postdoc
The Early Career Scientists Fora of the four large LHC experiments have joined forces to organize a cycle of soft skills workshops, where each event will focus on a different career development training aspect (CV writing, grant writing, the importance of networking, career paths, negotiations for a new job, interview preparation, etc.).
The next (sixth) LHC soft skill workshop will be held online on the 17th of June at 15:00-17:00 CEST: "What I wish I knew when I was a Ph.D. student/postdoc".
Registration is on the indico page: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1154668/
The workshop includes an open panel discussion followed by a Q&A session in zoom breakout rooms. During the panel discussion, the invited panellists will cover topics focusing on the different stages of an academic career, including career changes from academia to industry. At the time of event registration, you will have the opportunity to submit questions that you would like to be addressed by the panellists. The event is open to anyone working on a CERN experiment.
Next Laura Bassi meeting during LHCb week
This coming LHCb week we will have our first in-person Laura Bassi meeting for two years, for which our next PC-elect Yasmine Amhis has kindly agreed to be interviewed on her career to data and experiences as a women in LHCb and in STEM more broadly.
The Laura Bassi initiative aims to bring together LHCb colleagues interested in tackling the underrepresentation of women in HEP, to promote discussion and ideas on related issues and to provide an informal network to colleagues. Meetings are open to all, but are primarily geared towards PhD students and post-docs.
The meeting will be held on Thursday lunch-time of LHCb week, 16th June, 12:45-13:45 CEST in building 40 (next to the filtration plant), room 40/R-A10.
More details on the event and on the Laura Bassi initiative at: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1168758/
- 20 May 2022
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Next "Coffee with …" event, Tuesday May 24th
The registration for the next "Coffee with …" event is now open. This is an opportunity to spend half an hour chatting with nice people, some of whom you might have never met otherwise. It will take place next Tuesday, May 24 between 13:30-14:00 CET (right before the Tuesday meeting).
This is how it works: you register at https://indico.cern.ch/event/1162208/
by Monday evening (just before the event) at the latest. We take the list of all registrations, split it "randomly" into small groups of participants and assign each group to a separate zoom room.
We'll send you the link to your zoom room on Tuesday morning.
We hope to see you there with us!
WIT Talk with Noor Afshan Fathima, CERN IT accessibility studies' ally
On Monday, May 23 at 12:00 CET, Women in Technology talks receives Noor Afshan Fathima who will share the challenges of raising awareness on disabilities and her efforts with Open Source methodologies, including accessibility tools.
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1158567/
Conference on Gender dimensions in physics and math-intensive research and teaching
to be held in Lund, Sweden on June 22-23, 2022
- 13 May 2022
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Call for an Early Career representative nomination
To the Early Career Community: Martha is resigning as EC representative on the 30th of June due to her taking a new position outside of the LHCb collaboration. Thus there is a new call for nominations to replace her, open until the 23rd of May.
- Nominations are open to any member of the LHCb EC Community
- Self-nominations are welcome and encouraged!
- To make a nomination, write directly to Sara Celani (sara.celani@cern.ch) and/or Martha Hilton (martha.hilton@cern.ch), and the nomination procedure will be kept fully anonymous.
- In the case of more than 1 candidates accepting the nomination, an election inside the EC Community (as defined by the EC egroup*) will be organised.
- The aim is to have the next representative ratified at the June CB, so he/she can start his/her term on the 1st of July.
- The newly elected representative will work together with Sara, who will continue her term.
- The duration of the mandate is flexible, normally between 1-2 years.
For more information about the EC representatives work and initiatives, see: https://lhcb.web.cern.ch/ECGD_Office/earlycareer.html
Continuing and expanding this work is in the best interest of the entire EC Community and is useful for personal development and networking, so we strongly invite you to actively participate in the selection process of the new representatives!
*Belonging to the LHCb early-career commnutiny is a matter of self definition. The community includes all the LHCb members who are subscribed to the e-group lhcb-early-career. By default, postdocs, PhD students and Bachelor students are automatically subscibed. LHCb members who do not belong to these categories and would like to join the community should subscribe to the e-group lhcb-early-career-subscribe.
https://lhcb.web.cern.ch/ECGD_Office/ECGD-intro.html
Job shadowing at CERN for children
CERN has a job shadowing program to help school children confirm the choice of their future studies through discovering CERN and how it is pushing the frontiers of science and technology.
The shadowing lasts typically one week during the summer. The Women In Technology group calls for the women at CERN to:
- Volunteer to be shadowed; Please mail WIT if you are interested: wit-sc@cern.ch
- Spread the word. Applications are open: https://careers.cern/job-shadowing
- 6 May 2022
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2021 annual report by the CERN Ombud is out
The report contains anonymous, statistical information with respect to matters brought to the Ombud's attention, including their nature and status or outcome and the demographics of visitors, as well as a general assessment of the operation of the Office of the Ombud. The observations and conclusions are used to propose pragmatic actions to help solve the frequently raised problems, that are then submitted to the CERN Directorate.
https://ombuds.web.cern.ch/blog/2022/04/2021-annual-report-ombud-lets-talk
- 29 April 2022
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Discrimination still plagues science
A Nature survey shows discrimination remains common in science and employers need to do more to improve workplace equity and inclusion.
- 22 April 2022
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LHCb Early Career Scientist Awards - last days for nominations
The call for nominations for the 2022 LHCb Early Career Scientist Awards is still open until Monday.
Please submit your nominations by *Monday April 25th 2022* via the website:
https://lhcb-early-career-scientist-awards.web.cern.ch
To access it, please click on the sign-in link at the top right and use your CERN credentials.
As in previous years, the LHCb awards recognise outstanding achievements by the LHCb early career scientists.
Prizes will be awarded to individuals or small teams:
1) For an outstanding contribution to the operation of LHCb or to the LHCb Upgrade I.
2) For a transformative contribution to LHCb.
3) For an outstanding contribution to the area of Computing and Software.
4) Other award-worthy contributions that do not fall in the categories above (usually not including physics data analyses).
In the nomination form, please include the email addresses of two referees. Preferentially they should send their reference letters to lhcb-early-career-award@cern.ch by Monday April 25th. If this cannot be organised, the committee will contact them directly to get the necessary information.
Everyone in the Collaboration is encouraged to send nominations. Self-nominations are also welcome.
The prizes will be awarded at the June LHCb week.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to send an email to the members of the committee: lhcb-early-career-award@cern.ch
Next CERN Alumni events for early-career scientists
· Virtual Company Showroom with IBA, a company operating in the field of proton therapy, radiopharmacy, particle accelerators for industry on 29 April:
https://alumni.cern/events/82722
· Virtual Company Showroom with Switzerland-based company Dotphoton, image compression solution for professional applications, on 13 May:
- 15 April 2022
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IRIS-HEP AGC Tools 2022 Workshop, April 25–26, 2022
The two-day IRIS-HEP AGC Tools 2022 Workshop is an opportunity for early career scientists and will take place on April 25-26, 2022. The event is dedicated to showcasing tools and workflows related to the “Analysis Grand Challenge” (AGC) organized by IRIS-HEP and partners.
The deadline for registrations is April 22nd 2022, and the workshop will be fully virtual. Registration is at: https://indico.cern.ch/e/agc-tools-2
The AGC focuses on running a physics analysis at scale, including the handling of systematic uncertainties, binned statistical analysis, reinterpretation, and end-to-end optimization. The AGC makes use of new and advanced analysis tools developed by the community in the Python ecosystem and relies on the development of the required cyberinfrastructure to be executed at scale. A specific goal of the AGC is to demonstrate technologies envisioned for use at the HL-LHC.
The workshop will feature talks, demonstrations, and discussions related to the following:
- Foundation libraries (uproot, awkward, hist, mplhep)
- Queries with func_adl and data delivery with ServiceX
- Columnar analysis with coffea
- Statistical inference: pyhf and cabinetry
- From data delivery to statistical inference: connecting all the pieces
- Data management with Skyhook
- Scale-out with coffea: coffea-casa analysis facility
- Analysis user experience with Python HEP data science tools
- Experiment-related discussions
The agenda will heavily feature hands-on examples based on various tools and services developed in the Python ecosystem by and for the particle physics community, with room to discuss the current status of projects and interfaces.
Participants will be able to follow along and experience the showcased workflows themselves on dedicated Analysis Facilities.
The workshop follows a similar event that took place in Nov 2021 (https://indico.cern.ch/e/agc-tools-workshop). This upcoming iteration will also serve as an input to the HSF Analysis Ecosystems Workshop II.
- 01 April 2022
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Sexual harrassment in science
Research shows that academia and science have not dealt effectively with cases of sexual harrassment. While scientists who are harrassed often face significant career consequences, ranging from having to make lateral career moves to not feeling safe enough to attend professional events, it is rare for the victims to get the resolution they deserve. The article lists the roadblocks when facing this problem and offers ideas to improve our working environment.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/sexual-harassment-science-me-too-essay
- 25 March 2022
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LHCb Early Career Scientist Awards
The call for nominations for the 2022 LHCb Early Career Scientist Awards is now open. Please submit your nominations by Monday April 18th 2022 via the website: https://lhcb-early-career-scientist-awards.web.cern.ch
To access it, please click on the sign-in link at the top right and use your CERN credentials.
As in previous years, LHCb prizes recognise outstanding achievements by LHCb’s early career scientists. Prizes will be awarded by individuals or small teams:
1) For an outstanding contribution to the operation of LHCb or to the LHCb Upgrade I.
2) For a transformative contribution to LHCb.
3) For an outstanding contribution to the area of Computing and Software.
4) Other award-worthy contributions that do not fall in the categories above (usually not including physics data analyses).
In the nomination form, please include the email addresses of two referees. Preferentially they should send their reference letters to lhcb-early-career-award@cern.ch by Monday April 18th. If this cannot be organised, the committee will contact them directly to get the necessary information.
Everyone in the Collaboration is encouraged to send nominations. Self nominations are also welcome.
The prizes will be awarded at the June LHCb week.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to send an email to the members of the committee: lhcb-early-career-award@cern.ch
- 18 March 2022
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An LHCb Newcomers Welcome Event will be held at the next Tuesday meeting on 22 March. It will include an introduction to the LHCb organisation, the ECGD office and the LHCb secretariat and is aimed at new and recent members of the collaboration:
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1100944/
Django Girls 2022: Call for volunteers for the online programming workshop at CERN
Django Girls, the programming workshop for girls and women aged 15 and over, is returning to CERN on 28 and 30 April 2022 in an online edition on zoom. With coaching by CERN tutors, the participants will learn how to create a blog and launch it online. The organisers are looking for volunteer coaches to lead the workshop, where each volunteer will coach a team of three participants. More info and registration by 21 March:
https://home.cern/news/news/knowledge-sharing/django-girls-2022-call-volunteers-programming-workshop
- 11 March 2022
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Battling the Matilda Effect
In 1993, Cornell University science historian Margaret Rossiter coined the term “Matilda Effect” to describe the lack of recognition given to the contributions of women scientists. This was one of the key motivations for the creation by the United Nations, in 2015, of the International Day of Women and Girls on Science.
This year the International Particle Physics Outreach Group (IPPOG), which organises Particle Physics Masterclasses in institutions around the world, interviewed five of the masterclass moderators, all successful women scientists, to get their opinions on their ongoing efforts to battle the Matilda effect:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/battling-matilda-effect-ippog/
- 4 March 2022
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Follow-up on this week's ECGD session on Women and Girls in Science
Many interesting issues came up during the ECGD session on Tuesday, especially in the lively panel discussion, on the position of women in science and in our collaboration. LHCb has a fraction of women comparable to that of other LHC collaborations, but lower than science in general, and the female fraction of responsibility roles is similar or higher than the overall fraction. We heard and discussed about the variety of difficulties women face in different stages of their scientific career and what initiatives can be taken to eliminate or reduce those difficulties.
We received lots of suggestions and examples on the jamboard, as well as a list of further resources - many thanks to Marina Artuso - which are now added to the slides and attached to the session’s agenda in indico: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1125047/#b-450357-ecgd
Next "Coffee with..." event
The registration for the next "Coffee with …" event is now open. This is an opportunity to spend half an hour chatting with nice people, some of whom you might have never met otherwise. It will take place on Tuesday, March 8th between 13:30-14:00 CET (right before the Tuesday meeting).
This is how it works: you register at https://indico.cern.ch/event/1132925/
by Monday evening at the latest. We take the list of all registrations, split it "randomly" into small groups of participants and assign each group to a separate zoom room.
We'll send you the link to your zoom room on Tuesday morning.
We hope to see you there!
CERN Alumni events for early-career scientists
We’d like to inform you about the two upcoming events organised by CERN Alumni, targeting those in their early careers:
· Virtual Company Showroom with Lausanne-based company, Neural Concept, on 04 March: https://alumni.cern/events/78594
· Moving Out of Academia to Data Science and Engineering on 11 March: https://alumni.cern/events/77302
Women in Science - Panel discussion on the occasion of International Women’s Day
The Science & Society Initiative would like to invite you for:
Women in Science - Panel discussion on the occasion of International Women’s Day
8 March 2022 5:00pm (CET)
The role of women in science and science institutions will be discussed as well as difficulties of reaching high level positions in a men-dominated environment.
Panelists:
• Dr Beate Heinemann, DESY Director of Particle Physics Division
• Dr Rohini Godbole, Honorary Professor, Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore),Vice president, Indian Academy of Science
• Dr Halina Abramowicz, Professor at the School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University
• Dr Ursula Bassler, Scientific Director, IN2P3 – CNRS, Paris
• Dr Miriam Nicado Garcia, Rector, University Havana, Cuba
The next (sixth) LHC soft skill workshop will be held online on the 17th of June at 15:00-17:00 CEST: "What I wish I knew when I was a Ph.D. student/postdoc".
Registration is on the indico page: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1154668/
The workshop includes an open panel discussion followed by a Q&A session in zoom breakout rooms. During the panel discussion, the invited panellists will cover topics focusing on the different stages of an academic career, including career changes from academia to industry. At the time of event registration, you will have the opportunity to submit questions that you would like to be addressed by the panellists. The event is open to anyone working on a CERN experiment.
Next Laura Bassi meeting during LHCb week
This coming LHCb week we will have our first in-person Laura Bassi meeting for two years, for which our next PC-elect Yasmine Amhis has kindly agreed to be interviewed on her career to data and experiences as a women in LHCb and in STEM more broadly.
The Laura Bassi initiative aims to bring together LHCb colleagues interested in tackling the underrepresentation of women in HEP, to promote discussion and ideas on related issues and to provide an informal network to colleagues. Meetings are open to all, but are primarily geared towards PhD students and post-docs.
The meeting will be held on Thursday lunch-time of LHCb week, 16th June, 12:45-13:45 CEST in building 40 (next to the filtration plant), room 40/R-A10.
More details on the event and on the Laura Bassi initiative at: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1168758/
- 20 May 2022
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Next "Coffee with …" event, Tuesday May 24th
The registration for the next "Coffee with …" event is now open. This is an opportunity to spend half an hour chatting with nice people, some of whom you might have never met otherwise. It will take place next Tuesday, May 24 between 13:30-14:00 CET (right before the Tuesday meeting).
This is how it works: you register at https://indico.cern.ch/event/1162208/
by Monday evening (just before the event) at the latest. We take the list of all registrations, split it "randomly" into small groups of participants and assign each group to a separate zoom room.
We'll send you the link to your zoom room on Tuesday morning.
We hope to see you there with us!
WIT Talk with Noor Afshan Fathima, CERN IT accessibility studies' ally
On Monday, May 23 at 12:00 CET, Women in Technology talks receives Noor Afshan Fathima who will share the challenges of raising awareness on disabilities and her efforts with Open Source methodologies, including accessibility tools.
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1158567/
Conference on Gender dimensions in physics and math-intensive research and teaching
to be held in Lund, Sweden on June 22-23, 2022
- 13 May 2022
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Call for an Early Career representative nomination
To the Early Career Community: Martha is resigning as EC representative on the 30th of June due to her taking a new position outside of the LHCb collaboration. Thus there is a new call for nominations to replace her, open until the 23rd of May.
- Nominations are open to any member of the LHCb EC Community
- Self-nominations are welcome and encouraged!
- To make a nomination, write directly to Sara Celani (sara.celani@cern.ch) and/or Martha Hilton (martha.hilton@cern.ch), and the nomination procedure will be kept fully anonymous.
- In the case of more than 1 candidates accepting the nomination, an election inside the EC Community (as defined by the EC egroup*) will be organised.
- The aim is to have the next representative ratified at the June CB, so he/she can start his/her term on the 1st of July.
- The newly elected representative will work together with Sara, who will continue her term.
- The duration of the mandate is flexible, normally between 1-2 years.
For more information about the EC representatives work and initiatives, see: https://lhcb.web.cern.ch/ECGD_Office/earlycareer.html
Continuing and expanding this work is in the best interest of the entire EC Community and is useful for personal development and networking, so we strongly invite you to actively participate in the selection process of the new representatives!
*Belonging to the LHCb early-career commnutiny is a matter of self definition. The community includes all the LHCb members who are subscribed to the e-group lhcb-early-career. By default, postdocs, PhD students and Bachelor students are automatically subscibed. LHCb members who do not belong to these categories and would like to join the community should subscribe to the e-group lhcb-early-career-subscribe.
https://lhcb.web.cern.ch/ECGD_Office/ECGD-intro.html
Job shadowing at CERN for children
CERN has a job shadowing program to help school children confirm the choice of their future studies through discovering CERN and how it is pushing the frontiers of science and technology.
The shadowing lasts typically one week during the summer. The Women In Technology group calls for the women at CERN to:
- Volunteer to be shadowed; Please mail WIT if you are interested: wit-sc@cern.ch
- Spread the word. Applications are open: https://careers.cern/job-shadowing
- 6 May 2022
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2021 annual report by the CERN Ombud is out
The report contains anonymous, statistical information with respect to matters brought to the Ombud's attention, including their nature and status or outcome and the demographics of visitors, as well as a general assessment of the operation of the Office of the Ombud. The observations and conclusions are used to propose pragmatic actions to help solve the frequently raised problems, that are then submitted to the CERN Directorate.
https://ombuds.web.cern.ch/blog/2022/04/2021-annual-report-ombud-lets-talk
- 29 April 2022
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Discrimination still plagues science
A Nature survey shows discrimination remains common in science and employers need to do more to improve workplace equity and inclusion.
- 22 April 2022
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LHCb Early Career Scientist Awards - last days for nominations
The call for nominations for the 2022 LHCb Early Career Scientist Awards is still open until Monday.
Please submit your nominations by *Monday April 25th 2022* via the website:
https://lhcb-early-career-scientist-awards.web.cern.ch
To access it, please click on the sign-in link at the top right and use your CERN credentials.
As in previous years, the LHCb awards recognise outstanding achievements by the LHCb early career scientists.
Prizes will be awarded to individuals or small teams:
1) For an outstanding contribution to the operation of LHCb or to the LHCb Upgrade I.
2) For a transformative contribution to LHCb.
3) For an outstanding contribution to the area of Computing and Software.
4) Other award-worthy contributions that do not fall in the categories above (usually not including physics data analyses).
In the nomination form, please include the email addresses of two referees. Preferentially they should send their reference letters to lhcb-early-career-award@cern.ch by Monday April 25th. If this cannot be organised, the committee will contact them directly to get the necessary information.
Everyone in the Collaboration is encouraged to send nominations. Self-nominations are also welcome.
The prizes will be awarded at the June LHCb week.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to send an email to the members of the committee: lhcb-early-career-award@cern.ch
Next CERN Alumni events for early-career scientists
· Virtual Company Showroom with IBA, a company operating in the field of proton therapy, radiopharmacy, particle accelerators for industry on 29 April:
https://alumni.cern/events/82722
· Virtual Company Showroom with Switzerland-based company Dotphoton, image compression solution for professional applications, on 13 May:
- 15 April 2022
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IRIS-HEP AGC Tools 2022 Workshop, April 25–26, 2022
The two-day IRIS-HEP AGC Tools 2022 Workshop is an opportunity for early career scientists and will take place on April 25-26, 2022. The event is dedicated to showcasing tools and workflows related to the “Analysis Grand Challenge” (AGC) organized by IRIS-HEP and partners.
The deadline for registrations is April 22nd 2022, and the workshop will be fully virtual. Registration is at: https://indico.cern.ch/e/agc-tools-2
The AGC focuses on running a physics analysis at scale, including the handling of systematic uncertainties, binned statistical analysis, reinterpretation, and end-to-end optimization. The AGC makes use of new and advanced analysis tools developed by the community in the Python ecosystem and relies on the development of the required cyberinfrastructure to be executed at scale. A specific goal of the AGC is to demonstrate technologies envisioned for use at the HL-LHC.
The workshop will feature talks, demonstrations, and discussions related to the following:
- Foundation libraries (uproot, awkward, hist, mplhep)
- Queries with func_adl and data delivery with ServiceX
- Columnar analysis with coffea
- Statistical inference: pyhf and cabinetry
- From data delivery to statistical inference: connecting all the pieces
- Data management with Skyhook
- Scale-out with coffea: coffea-casa analysis facility
- Analysis user experience with Python HEP data science tools
- Experiment-related discussions
The agenda will heavily feature hands-on examples based on various tools and services developed in the Python ecosystem by and for the particle physics community, with room to discuss the current status of projects and interfaces.
Participants will be able to follow along and experience the showcased workflows themselves on dedicated Analysis Facilities.
The workshop follows a similar event that took place in Nov 2021 (https://indico.cern.ch/e/agc-tools-workshop). This upcoming iteration will also serve as an input to the HSF Analysis Ecosystems Workshop II.
- 01 April 2022
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Sexual harrassment in science
Research shows that academia and science have not dealt effectively with cases of sexual harrassment. While scientists who are harrassed often face significant career consequences, ranging from having to make lateral career moves to not feeling safe enough to attend professional events, it is rare for the victims to get the resolution they deserve. The article lists the roadblocks when facing this problem and offers ideas to improve our working environment.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/sexual-harassment-science-me-too-essay
- 25 March 2022
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LHCb Early Career Scientist Awards
The call for nominations for the 2022 LHCb Early Career Scientist Awards is now open. Please submit your nominations by Monday April 18th 2022 via the website: https://lhcb-early-career-scientist-awards.web.cern.ch
To access it, please click on the sign-in link at the top right and use your CERN credentials.
As in previous years, LHCb prizes recognise outstanding achievements by LHCb’s early career scientists. Prizes will be awarded by individuals or small teams:
1) For an outstanding contribution to the operation of LHCb