Turkish student participates in CERN experiment

Melike Çalkap - ISTANBUL

Erdem Yiğit Ertörer, a 26-year-old Turkish Ph.D. student in the U.S., has realized his childhood dream to work at CERN by qualifying to participate in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment, one of the five major experiments conducted at CERN.

Doing his Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University, Ertörer is expected to spend about three years working on CERN’s CMS experiment.

Speaking to local media, Ertörer said that he was always interested in science and that he had set his mind on working at CERN one day during a trip he took as a high school student.

Studying physics at Boğaziçi University after finishing high school, Ertörer stated that meeting Associate Professor Dr. Bora Akgün, a faculty member of the university’s Physics Department, changed the course of his life drastically.

“During our high school trip to CERN, I met Associate Professor Dr. Bora Akgün there, and I bombarded him with questions. When I started my undergraduate studies at Boğaziçi University, [he] had returned to Türkiye and became my professor. He inspired me and became my role model. Ten years have passed since that trip, and I am both very proud and happy to have realized my dream,” Ertörer said, noting that his current goal is to continue working at CERN during the next 10 years.

The CMS Experiment, launched by CERN in 2008, is one of five experiments measuring the energies produced by the collision of positively charged atomic particles.

Standing 15 meters high, weighing 12,500 tons and located 100 meters underground, the experimental setup contains a powerful magnet.

The setup, which was created to display the smallest particles in the universe, can take three-dimensional photographs of these particles by colliding two opposing protons at a speed above the speed of light.