Hana at CERN: Nerds Or Cool Guys? Let‘s See!

Post by my little sister Pavlina and her friend Hana (Thank you!):

My sister Hana asked me and my friend Hana to write a post about people at CERN. The reason is simple. We are neither physics nor IT people so we can see the Summer Students from a different point of view.

So we made a few observations. It´s not any deep analysis, only some ideas that came to our minds. Of course we had some expectations based on stereotypes about people who work in a centre of particle physics research. And of course we expected lots of nerds hanging around. So are there nerds only or actually you can see a cool guy in data centre or at ATLAS detector? Well… You can make your own opinion after reading this :)

At first, when Hana the friend and I arrived at CERN, it looked like an empty place. There is actually 5000 people working at CERN and also 300 Summer Students and openlab guys during July and August. This is how I imagine a melting pot. Thousands of people from different countries and no racism. All the nations working side by side. Maybe it's because Higgs boson has the same color in China or USA :-P
Stereotypes say that at CERN, there should be much more guys than girls. It is true. A brief observation suggests 20-25 % of girls among summer and openlab students, which is still a good ratio. So every girl can have up to three admirers (so that the girls won't envy each other). Even though there could be a rough battle about women, the guys are mostly very nice and treat the lady with respect.
Like in every other group there are different types of people: leaders, jokers, critics and so on.
They work and study at CERN! That means everybody is smart and kind of an expert qualified to present his opinion on every issue discussed. The fact they‘re smart (and aware of partners smartness too) is making their discussions nicely assertive even though they disagree in many points.
Among Summer Students there are guys with extremely high self-esteem, average self-esteem and really low self-esteem. Some of them also present themselves as gods and some of them keep their know-how in private.
Even though physicists and IT guys could be considered as a possible target of bullying, sometimes they are engaged in similar behavior too. As always it‘s part of "fun."
Maybe you wouldn't expect this, but they're funny! The jokes are sometimes really good, sometimes really bad, sometimes smart, sometimes stupid, sometimes sarcastic and sometimes there's only one person who thinks it's funny. Of course they make jokes with numbers (0, 1 and so on), particles, computers and other stuff in a way normal people don't understand.
They for sure like what they do and find it interesting. It seemed they mostly really enjoy their time at CERN as much as possible. It's possible to see sparkles in their eyes from time to time. I still can't forget how enthusiastic they were during our trip to the tunnels. Pure childish joy :)
It was interesting to learn what brought them to CERN in the first place. They're opened to new experience. They want to learn, move forward, do something. And they're not afraid of such things like living in foreign country or participating in such a big project like research at CERN.
I always imagined IT guys and physicists like people who don't go outside so that they're pale and skinny. Actually they mostly do go outside and some of them even have a tan!
Last, but not least – they look good! Girls are pretty, guys are more than ok too, sometimes even having muscles! They wear nice clothes and take care of themselves. You wouldn't say they're "special" in any way by their appearance. But beauty is subjective. In the Czech Republic the media asked a young woman marrying an older fat ugly politician why she was going to get married with him. She replied: „Because he has a sexy brain!“ Girls, if you're a fan of sexy brains too – at CERN there's lots of fish in the sea ;)!

To conclude, there is a bunch of young people at CERN who love to have fun but also love what they study and they´re really good at it. Despite of that, I feel like they're like everybody else.

PS: We did some facebook research and found some nice photos and videos which can show you what kind of people they are. What do you think? Nerds or cool guys?