Indian High Schoolers Win Global CERN Particle Physics Contest

The Winning Project

Five teenagers from India joined the top five global winners of an annual international physics contest run by CERN in Geneva. Named "attoPION", the student group includes Nenavath Abhay Vivek, Sidhartha Aniket Jaiswal, Ayush Bhardwaj, Aarush Mandala, and Aritra Sadhukhan, who study at different schools across Nizamabad, Bengaluru, Greater Noida, and Durgapur after meeting through prior science contests. Their winning proposal focused on pion charge exchange, tracking how often charged subatomic particles called pions turn neutral when striking light atoms like lithium and beryllium across various energy levels. Such measurements help researchers working on the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment in the United States by explaining data shifts caused when neutrinos create pions inside atoms.

Preparation and Mentorship

Starting with zero formal training in particle physics, the eleventh and twelfth graders spent weeks reading textbooks, watching online lectures, and working through research papers. They relied on reference books like Griffiths Introduction to Elementary Particles and A Tour of the Subatomic Zoo, alongside study materials from NPTEL and YouTube lectures by Indian Institute of Science experts. To refine their proposal, they emailed doctoral researchers worldwide and connected with Manu Srivastava, a PhD scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, along with Laxman Mekala from IIT-Bombay. Mr. Srivastava noted that his input remained strictly supervisory while the teenagers performed all calculations and developed the core concepts independently. This year's contest drew more than 700 proposals globally, with other winning groups hailing from Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Türkiye.

Context

CERN operates the world's largest particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, where massive particle accelerators help scientists understand the fundamental laws of nature. High school competitions like this one aim to spark early interest in advanced research by giving young students hands-on experience with real scientific problems. Online collaboration tools have increasingly allowed students from different cities to form teams and work together without needing to meet in person during the early planning stages.