Girls’Day 2024 at GSI/FAIR again a great success
26.04.2024 |
The nationwide day of action Girls'Day in 2024 was once again very well received at GSI/FAIR. This time, 68 girls between the ages of eleven and 17 took part in the event and learned about the accelerator facilities and experiments, about research and infrastructure, and especially about the career opportunities at GSI and FAIR. The girls took advantage of Girls'Day to gain insight into the wide range of activities at an international research institution, especially in professions in which women have rarely been represented so far.
Following a welcome by the organizing Public Relations department and the head of the Human Resources Management, Tobias Gottschalk, the girls first went on an accompanied discovery tour to some stations on campus. They took a look at the Main Control Room of the accelerator facility, visited the treatment site for tumor therapy with carbon ions and marveled at the large detector setup HADES. The program also included a walk to the viewing platform of the large construction site for the future FAIR accelerator.
Afterwards, the girls learned more about individual work areas on campus in small groups. These included science activities in materials research, atomic physics, physics of superheavy elements and biophysics, as well as numerous accelerator and infrastructure facilities such as ion sources, linear accelerator, beam diagnostics, electronics, engineering, workshops, target laboratory, cryogenics, technology transfer, facility management and IT. In a special FAIR construction offer, some of the girls were also able to get a glimpse of construction activity on the large-scale site, getting up close and personal with excavators, cranes and lots and lots of concrete.
“We were delighted to see enormous demand and lively participation in our attractive offers again this year. A big thank you goes to our supervisors. They put a lot of work and passion into preparing the activities. Many groups have built or produced small items to take home,” explains organizer Carola Pomplun, herself a physicist, who works in the GSI/FAIR press and public relations department. “Coming into personal contact with colleagues on site, seeing the work ‘live’ and being able to ask and answer questions directly, gives the girls a deep insight into the various professional fields. They learn about the opportunities for internships, apprenticeships, dual study programs or even bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral theses at GSI/FAIR.”
Girls’Day is a day of action all over Germany. On this day, businesses, universities, and other institutions all over Germany open their doors to schoolgirls from grade 5 and above. The participants learn about courses of study and training in professions in the areas of IT, natural sciences, and technology — areas in which women have rarely been employed in the past. GSI and — since its foundation — also FAIR have been participating in the annual event since the early days of Girls'Day. (CP)
