Bangladeshi team among 5 winners in Cern physics contest
The competition invites secondary school students from around the world to design physics experiments that can be carried out at particle accelerator beamlines at Cern, DESY and ELSA.
Students from Bangladesh, India, Türkiye, the United Kingdom and the United States have been selected as winners of the 13th edition of Beamline for Schools (BL4S), an international physics competition initiated by Cern, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
The competition invites secondary school students from around the world to design physics experiments that can be carried out at particle accelerator beamlines at Cern in Switzerland, or at partner facilities DESY in Germany and ELSA at the University of Bonn.
In the 2026 edition, five teams were selected based on the scientific merit of their proposals.
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The Bangladeshi winning team, POLARIS, includes students from Choumuhani Government Saleh Ahmed College in Noakhali, Birshreshtha Noor Mohammad Public College in Dhaka and Collectorate School and College in Rangpur. The team will carry out its experiment at the ELSA accelerator in Bonn.
India's winning team, attoPION, comprises students from several schools including Bansal Junior College Nizamabad, Greenwood High International School, The Shri Ram Global School in Greater Noida (West), and Purv International School in Durgapur.
Türkiye's team, PionIST 3, brings together students from multiple science high schools, including Hüseyin Avni Sözen Anatolian High School and Validebağ Science High School. Both teams will travel to Cern to conduct their experiments.
The United Kingdom team, Mobile MIPs from the University of Liverpool Maths School, and the United States team, Centauri Stars from Centaurus High School, will conduct their experiments at DESY in Hamburg.
Organisers said a record 712 teams from 89 countries submitted proposals this year, a 40% increase from 2025. More than 4,500 students participated, with girls making up 38% of entrants.
A beamline provides high-energy particle beams for experiments in physics, materials science and medical research.
Cern Director for Stakeholder Relations Ursula Bassler said growing participation reflects increasing global interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and welcomed the winning teams to turn their ideas into real experiments.
