Of course, lots of big name researchers will be there. But what made the first Summit so special, and we're hoping will be the hallmark of the second one, is the participation of a good deal of real citizen scientists. Indeed, a whole panel session will be devoted to "the citizens of citizen science".
A novelty this year will be a presentation by two high school students. Not just any high school, mind you. These students go to the Simon Langton Grammar School in Canterbury, where Becky Parker, a super teacher, gets kids involved in building cosmic ray detectors and designing satellites.
The students, Louis Wilson and Chris Cundy, will talk about CERN@school, an ambitious programme to build a network of cosmic ray detectors across the UK and one day the whole world.
Becky's students have also been involved in testing the latest version of CERN@home, called Test4Theory, where volunteers can simulate an atom-smasher on their home computer... and help theoretical physicists at CERN hunt for new fundamental particles like the Higgs boson.
The session with Louis and Chris should be an exciting one. It kicks off this Friday 17/2 at 14:00. Nice of Becky to let her students play hooky and go to London for the day!
