Port Coquitlam physics teacher achieves trip of a lifetime

DIANE STRANDBERG dstrandberg@tricitynews.com

A Port Coquitlam physics and technology teacher will soon be heading to Geneva, Switzerland, for the trip of a lifetime

The Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) is sending Edward Csuka to CERN this summer in recognition of his teaching excellence.

Csuka, who won his CAP award in February, wrote a proposal about why he should receive the additional prize of an all-expenses paid trip to visit the European

Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, which houses the world’s largest atomic particle collider in the world.

Last week, the Terry Fox Secondary School teacher learned he will be going on the trip.

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“I am excited to announce that I have been selected for the all expenses paid trip to CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. I will be departing on July 1st or 2nd and returning on July 16 or 17 this year. It is an incredible opportunity to rub elbows with many of the top physics minds in the world,” Csuka said in an email.

CERN is the Center for European Nuclear Research where the world’s largest ever scientific experiment is being conducted underground in the huge 27-km diameter supercollider called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The LHC accelerates protons to near the speed of light in two opposite directions and smashes them together to learn more about the fundamental nature of the universe.

“There are many experiments happening, but most notably, the Higgs boson was discovered here in 2012 leading to a Nobel Prize for Peter Higgs,” said Csuka

In February, Csuka told the Tri-City News he’s been interested in physics since he was a young student and wants to visit CERN where some incredible research is taking place.

“As a physics teacher, I’ve followed the building of this thing,” Csuka said “It’s the biggest experiment humans have conducted by far This is where nature is talking to us, where new physics is happening.”

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