​In this post, I would like to tell you about my involvement in different Nuclear Physics Laboratories in the US and Europe during my Ph.D.. Even if an experimental path is not your focus, chances are high that you will visit at least one of these facilities during your career. These times can be extremely nurturing, as you can learn on the spot from all the people involved in the laboratory, such as technicians, researchers, and other students. Furthermore, while participating in an experiment during your visit, you will be granted a wide view of how Nuclear Physics research is conducted, the standards it must meet, and the challenges that could arise during the measurements. In that sense, I consider that it is also quite important for everyone, especially those working in theory, to understand the entire process of data acquisition. Particularly, in this post, I would like to share my experiences at the Nuclear Science Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame (Indiana, USA), ISOLDE at CERN (Geneva, Switzerland), and GANIL (Caen, France) [1-3].
Starting from 2022, just after the pandemic, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with researchers of the University of Notre Dame’s Nuclear Science Laboratory (NSL) at South Bend, Indiana, USA. The international collaboration I was in was quite diverse and consisted of people from Italy, Greece, Mexico, Portugal, and the US, among other countries. My participation was made possible through my advisor’s project funding. As a student, I was invited to gain experience with the detection setup, and the electronics that connect the detectors with the pre-amplifiers, amplifiers, and finally to the data acquisition system, for the TriSol separator.  I was quite excited because we were working with Double-Sided Silicon Strip Detectors (DSSSD), as in my Ph.D. project. 
That was my first time in a US laboratory, and I couldn’t help but spend as much time there as possible. While working with the setup, we arrived before the beam was delivered and spent days and nights optimizing the configuration of the electronic chain. I gained more practical skills during those weeks than in an entire semester! Before leaving, I also took part in a night shift. They are usually quite calm, but you never know what might happen in one shift. Some examples are: losing the beam, and then calling the operators back, or the target being damaged during a test.
I loved the University of Notre Dame campus, which is full of life even at night, with visits from rabbits and even deer. The following year, in 2023, I returned to participate in another measurement at NSL, and in 2024, I was awarded the IReNA Visiting Fellowship, which supported an 8-week internship at the laboratory. I made the most of that time by collaborating on experiments, gaining practical skills in the laboratory, and advancing the analysis of previous experiments carried out at TriSol.

​Picture 1. Selfie while working at Notre Dame’s Nuclear Science Laboratory (NSL) during the IReNA Visiting Fellowship program.

​Picture 2. Sight of ISOLDE from the meeting hall during an experimental measurement in 2024.

​Finally, in April of this year, I was invited to take part in a measurement at GANIL, located in the city of Caen in northern France. My first stay there, just a short 3-week visit, only allowed me to tour the laboratory. This time, however, I returned as a user, which was an entirely different and rewarding experience. I was so happy to meet almost all the collaborators in person and reconnect with old friends I had not seen in years. And this was possible thanks to the EUROLABS grant that supported the students' travel for this experiment.
Inside GANIL, as at CERN, there is a guesthouse where you can book a room, and a restaurant for breakfast and meals. Nearby, you can also find a mall and additional restaurants. These facilities make it easier to focus entirely on the experiment, without worrying about the daily logistics, especially for those starting the night shift at midnight. 
During this experiment, several challenges emerged, and a lot of discussions were held between the collaboration and the accelerator operators to find the best solutions. At that moment, it was inspiring to witness the resilience and ingenuity of both researchers and technicians, and I learned a lot from the solutions they employed to keep the experiment on track. It was clear that the main goal was to achieve a successful measurement. 
Apart from participating in experimental measurements, there are several other ways to visit and experience nuclear physics laboratories. One option is through a summer school, like the EURO-LABS Basic Training School, where students spend a week in the facilities, attend lectures, and gain hands-on experience with small experiments in the accelerators. I had the chance to participate in the 2023 edition of the school at IFIN-HH (Bucharest-Magurele, Romania), and it was an incredible experience. The best part is that you meet other students from different parts of the world, many of whom will eventually become your future colleagues. Another option is through an internship, as I did at the NSL at the University of Notre Dame. Laboratories also open their doors during conferences, often offering guided tours of their facilities. Depending on the scenario, there are funding opportunities that can help with travel and participation, making these experiences more accessible.
Have you already visited a Nuclear Laboratory? What are the stories about your first time in one? Are you eager to visit one in a different country? I would love to know!

In December 2018, roughly a week before Christmas, in the middle of snowy Michigan winter, I stepped into the control room of a nuclear physics experiment for the very first time. I had just joined Michigan State University as a PhD student in August of that year, where the first semester was mostly spent taking classes and performing teaching assistant duties. My advisor encouraged me to participate in an experiment to get started with research and learn a few things. So I signed up for a couple of shifts. But I felt underprepared, underconfident, and honestly, even a little terrified when stepping into the control room that day.
  
As many of you might relate, being thrown into a high-stakes, ongoing experimental campaign can be exciting as well as unnerving at the same time. There’s no time for gentle hand-holding or foundational lectures when the beam is on and the data is coming in. Everyone around you is moving quickly, making decisions based on graphs that seem like hieroglyphics, communicating in a language of acronyms, shorthand, and intuition built from years of experience.

Your role as the new grad student? Keep your head down, watch a few key parameters, and log some values every hour. That is, of course, an important contribution to any experiment! However, I felt as if I was looking at some complex machinery that I would never be able to figure out completely. 

Although I had some undergraduate research experience, this was on a completely different level. I remember staring at a cluttered screen of diagnostics, afraid to do something wrong or break a working piece of code. I watched in awe as others interpreted plots I couldn’t make any sense of and took real-time decisions about detector voltages, beam steering, or data-taking strategies. I couldn't imagine ever being able to contribute meaningfully, and I walked away from that first shift feeling like I’d learned almost nothing.

Later, when I got back home, I gathered the courage to write to my mentor, who is a well-established scientist in our field. I poured out my insecurities, expecting a half-hearted generic reassurance. But their response was surprising! They told me they had felt exactly the same during their first experiments. Really? That overwhelming sensation of being completely lost is apparently, totally normal. And their advice was simple - find someone who knows more than you, and ask them basic, even ‘dumb’ questions.

So I started doing that. I reached out to the postdocs in our group, especially the ones who seemed patient and approachable. I’d corner them at coffee breaks, lunch breaks, and even before/after meetings and seminars, and ask basic things like, “What exactly does a PID plot show?” or “Why do we need calibration runs both before and after the experiment?” I found that they were always happy to answer, and their response mostly made sense. In scientific experiments, everything is usually done the way it is for very specific reasons. And as I uncovered those reasons one by one, I started to gain some much-needed confidence.

However, what really cemented my learning was getting hands-on. Once I began working on my own project in the lab where I was handling detectors, wiring up electronics, and troubleshooting data acquisition issues, I found that things finally started to stick. Concepts that had felt abstract during the experiment suddenly made sense when I physically encountered them. There’s no substitute for hands-on experience in experimental science. When you get your hands ‘dirty’ you build an intuitive understanding that no amount of documentation or lectures can ever provide.

By the time the next experiment rolled I had a different mindset. I started volunteering for simple tasks like powering up detectors or sorting online data. I made sure to read the ‘Run Plan’ - a document that outlines what we’re trying to do and how we’re going to do it ahead of time. I began attending the pre-experiment briefings more attentively. These usually include a presentation that walks through the motivation, the setup, and the expected outcomes. And I asked questions, lots of them, until I was satisfied with my understanding.

These incremental changes added up. Each experiment brought a new layer of understanding. Soon, I was able to contribute more meaningfully to discussions. I even started training others during their first shifts. This was something I never thought I’d be capable of looking back at that first winter in Michigan.
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Experiments can be chaotic, messy, and emotionally taxing. But they are also where physics comes to life. Embracing the chaos, asking questions, and building relationships are the best ways to grow in this field. And one day, not too far from now, you’ll be the one explaining a PID plot to the next nervous newbie.

​Figure: The SuN (Left) and NERO (Right) Detector Setup at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University. The author used these detectors for their Ph.D. thesis experiments.