27 July 2026

Photo: UHH/Schlotfeldt

Picture of the participants taken outside the HARBOR building on the DESY campus.

In July, the Cluster of Excellence Quantum Universe hosted this year's edition of the Hamburg International Summer School "Particles, Strings and Cosmology." The school, aimed primarily at master's students, brought together 30 participants from various countries, for some of whom this was their first academic visit in Europe.

The scientific program took the students from the experimental perspectives of Higgs physics, the physics of Standard Model and beyond the Standard Model to the theoretical foundations of strings and cosmology, including lectures on machine learning. Lectures and exercises were set up to offer an introduction to the different areas of research conducted in the cluster. 

Outside of the academic program, tours of the Bahrenfeld campus and Hamburg, coupled with a science pub quiz and social dinner, gave the students a chance to get to know their peers and perhaps meet their future collaborators along the way. The students also had a chance to meet this year's Beate Naroska Junior Guest Professor Chayanit Asawatangtrakuldee, along with Quantum Universe Key Researchers and Principal Investigators Juliette Alimena, Freya Blekman, and Elisabetta Gallo for a lively discussion on career planning. 

With this year's edition coming to a close, the Cluster of Excellence Quantum Universe would like to thank everyone involved in making this summer school possible.