Last year, mathematics student Bob Driessen won the essay contest that was organised as part of Radboud University's Week of Chance. Last week, as his prize, Driessen was given an extensive tour of CERN by Nijmegen professor Sijbrand de Jong, who also happens to be President of the CERN Council.

Driessen entered the Week of Chance essay contest as soon as he saw the prize. “When else would I have the opportunity to spend an entire day at CERN? That’s not a place you can just go visit.” The exact destination is the CMS detector of the LHC particle accelerator, CERN’s flagship, located one hundred metres below ground. Inside this enormous detector, groups of protons smash together at the speed of light. At the moment, however, this colossal device is undergoing winter maintenance.

‘It’s like a work of art’

The highlight of the tour takes place far underground. Earlier that day, CERN employee Arjan Verweij – an expert on the LHC’s magnets – prepared the visitors for the subterranean sleeping giant. But nothing can prepare first-time visitors for the wonder of seeing this device – with a diameter of about twenty metres – for the first time. The same was true for Driessen and his classmate Chris van de Ven, who accompanied him on the tour. ‘It’s like a work of art. You just can’t take your eyes off it. It’s amazing to know that people can actually get this huge thing up and running.’

Control room
During the trip, CERN employees (many of whom are Dutch) explained in detail how the different components of the European machine work – from the LHC’s magnets to the control room to the data centre, which is the brain behind the system. Sijbrand de Jong also shared stories about the history and the traditions of CERN.

In addition to being a professor of Experimental Physics in Nijmegen, De Jong is also President of the CERN Council. Having worked there since 1990, he is familiar with the ins and outs of the Swiss border town allowing him to share several interesting anecdotes with his guests. One of which involved an explanation of why the huge CERN complex no longer has a bar. Unbelievably enough, it was closed last year due to a shooting. As it turns out, the bartender was having an affair with the wife of a CERN employee. When word got out, the employee in question went home to get his gun.

High-level dignitaries
De Jong’s ‘formal office’, which is mainly used to receive high-level dignitaries, is also worth the visit. For years, this was the office of Nobel Prize laureate Wolfgang Pauli, who bequeathed his books to the organisation after his death. This collection gives visitors a good impression of what interested and inspired the late Austrian physicist. “Getting to visit a place like this is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Driessen reiterates. “I never would have had this chance without the contest.”