New participation record at Girls’Day: 81 participants explore GSI/FAIR
03.04.2025 |
81 students aged between ten and 17 took part in this year's Girls’Day at GSI/FAIR. It’s the largest number of participants the Girls’Day has ever had on site at GSI/FAIR. On the day, the girls gained numerous impressions of everyday life at an international research center and found out about the accelerator facilities and experiments. Girls’Day is a nationwide day of action that encourages girls to explore professions in which currently only few women are represented.
The girls were welcomed by the organizing Public Relations Department and Dr. Katharina Stummeyer, Administrative Managing Director of GSI and FAIR. They were then taken on a tour of the campus to visit the experimental storage ring ESR, the experimental site for medical research and the large detector setup HADES, as well as marveling at the large FAIR construction site from the viewing platform.
In small groups, the girls then learnt more about the individual professions and fields of work on campus. This year, these included research work in materials research, atomic physics and biophysics as well as various professions in the specialist and infrastructure departments such as ion sources, linear accelerators, beam diagnostics, electronics, engineering, workshops, target laboratory, cryogenics, detector laboratory, vacuum, technology transfer, and IT. In a special FAIR construction program, some of the girls gained an insight into construction activities on the large construction site. Another group joined the PR team to document the day on social media.
“On Girls’Day, we offer many girls exciting insights into job profiles and the research here at GSI and FAIR,” said Dr. Katharina Stummeyer. “We want to spark their interest and inspire them to engage with GSI and FAIR. It would be wonderful to see some of them return to us later — whether as working students, in apprenticeships, during an internship or while pursuing their bachelor's, master's or PhD theses here.”
“The high number of participants is of course a great confirmation of the attractiveness of our offer for us organizers and for the supervisors from the technical and scientific departments,” explains organizer Carola Pomplun, who is a physicist herself and works in the PR department at GSI and FAIR. “In the small groups, the girls could ask their questions directly, see the work ‘live’ and often build something small to take home with them. A big thanks goes to our supervisors, who made this direct contact possible.”
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. (LK/CP)
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