Nishina School 2017

Thoughts and Comments from the Participants

Fung Kin Ming

This summer at the Nishina School in RIKEN, I had the most fulfilling experience with a physics experiment thus far, and it is not entirely because we got to play with expensive equipment. Before I get ahead of myself, this summer school consists of two parts, lectures, and experiment. The lectures cover a wide range of topics from accelerator design to the specific nuclear reaction that we are going to investigate while leaving out some details about the experiment.

I must admit because of that, I felt a bit lost when I first got the data from the experiment. From not knowing where to start, we eventually manage to derive the relation between the data and a key parameter and come up with multiple ways to model the experiment. It is this process of applying our knowledge to tackle a practical challenge on our own that makes the experience so rewarding. In addition to all that, we got to experience the Japanese culture and meet people from around the globe and I am truly grateful for this opportunity.

Tam Chi Kin

The Nishina school 2017 is surely an excellent opportunity for students to gain experience in the field of physics research and better equip themselves in many aspects.

On the first week of the program, Motobayashi san, the ‘school master’, and other researchers currently working in RIKEN have provided lectures and training about measuring gamma radiations from 2 radioisotopes. I could really feel that I have built up some basic concepts and skills to challenge the experiment on the second week.

Our team was assigned to perform a mini project on a nuclear reaction happened in the CNO cycle -- 12C(p,γ)13N. It is really an unforgettable experience to use the pelletron, which accelerates a single proton to 1MeV of kinetic energy in our setup, to perform our experiment.

Data analysis would probably be the most challenging part. Fortunately, my teammates from PKU and PEA really help a lot in this section. During the whole project, they were always engaged in discussion and actively share the workload. More importantly, they were nice to answer my question whenever I got stuck with the calculations and programs.

I am so pleased to learn and interact with different scientists and I will never forget this two weeks in RIKEN.

Wu Samantha Y S

Riken’s Nishina summer school has been a spectacular trip for me to experience how professional physics experiments are done. In the first week, we were given the opportunity to visit world class cyclotrons, while lectures on the operation of accelerators especially amazed me. During the second week, I improved greatly on my experimental and team collaboration skills through the hands-on mini project – in beam measurement of the 12C(p,γ)13N reaction. It has been a little difficult to understand what we were expected to do at first due to communication gaps, but the lecturers and physicists in Riken were all very willing to explain and help. Apart from these, I am also grateful to have made friends with my teammate, coming from HKU, PKU and PEA, where we spent happy moments exploring Tokyo and enjoying Japanese culture together. In short, I really value this experience and it has sparked my interest to work in physics laboratories in the future.

Fan Kwok Lung

Nishina school at RIKEN is a great experience for student study physics and interested in nuclear physics. We got to visiting the world's most powerful cyclotron which can accelerate a nucleus to 0.7 speed of light. We got lecture which gave by elite scientists and operate the equipment to do nuclear physics experiment. I also learned a lot of skills which is crucial for future research like data analysis, theoretical calculation and teamwork. We got to meet students and researcher from Peking university,usa and japan and work with them. This is a very precious experience for me and I am grateful that I have the chance to join this program.

Lau Chi Ho

I have learnt more than I expected before going to the Nishina school at RIKEN.

Before going, I was already intrigued by the discovery of Nihonium and the world-class cyclotron they have. In these two weeks, I have the chance to visit their accelerators, as expected, but I also met researchers at RIKEN and hear about their experience. Apart from knowledge in nuclear physics, I also learnt about the attitudes and qualities that a researcher should have, which I value more as they are not available in textbooks.

The experiment is unforgettable as I have never done any with equipment as large as the pelletron there. The mentors encouraged us to do it ourselves by supervising passively. This gave me a greater sense of accomplishment as this proves myself.

I am grateful for this chance to RIKEN as this is a very popular programme. I am certain that this better prepares me for my future.

Teh Chi En

Having joined HKU Nuclear Physics Group as an undergraduate for over a year, I had always been wishing to participate in some experiments that involve an ion accelerator. This wish of mine was eventually fulfilled by attending the Nishina Summer School at RIKEN, where participants were given an opportunity to visit the Superconducting Ring Cyclotron (SRC), which is able to deliver beam of the highest intensity around the globe, and to perform an experiment using a linear accelerator. During the program, I was assigned to a group that works on in-beam 2 MeV 12C(p, γ)13N gamma spectroscopy with thick target.

Our group consisted of participants from PKU and HKU. Discussions within the group as well as with the lecturers and tutors had been some best moments as I was able to see how students and physicists coming from different backgrounds tackle the problems. Coding skills which I have acquired over the year had helped me a lot during data analysis. My not-so-good aspect was on hardwares and electronics, but a Colombian postdoctoral researcher, who was the tutor for our group, assisted me so much in those. Her clear yet comprehensive explanation totally refreshed my electronics knowledge with deeper insights. She even showed us a way to display and record gamma spectral data from a detector via built-in sound card in any laptop – this should solve the issue of not having sufficient oscilloscope and multi-channel analyzer in the next Nishina School. Even though our project was still, apparently, way behind from those cutting-edge researches in nuclear physics, the whole experience has nevertheless inspired me and gave me confidence before attending the graduate program in nuclear physics at Michigan State University, which comes in less than two weeks after returning from RIKEN.

Laboratory life aside, I have also met wonderful friends during the program. Before going to Japan, I knew very little about their lifestyles and culture. Now I have become more aware of street fashion in Japan, influencing my clothing sense and coming shopping choices. Lastly, I would like to recommend our students for joining Nishina School in the coming years. It would definitely be a memorable summer.