Question: Hi Andy, sorry if this is a stupid question but i was wondering what LHC was, also CERN sounds very interesting and I would like to ask what your role was there, many thanks, Sam

Andy Buckley answered on 5 Mar 2019:

The LHC is the Large Hadron Collider: the world’s most powerful particle accelerator and collider, underground just outside Geneva. I’ve been associated with CERN since 2001 — most UK particle physicists are based at a UK university but travel regularly to CERN or another international lab. Most of us have lived overseas at a lab for a while, too. When I was based at CERN, I was in charge of event simulation for the ATLAS experiment: our work was in demand by every physics study going, and there were a lot of people to oversee, so I needed to be on-site. These days I concentrate more on doing my own physics with ATLAS data (as well as teaching in Glasgow) so I don’t need to be there all the time, but it’s still always a vibrant and efficient place to get things done. Nice weather, too!