Why I Outreach: Alexandra Alexandrova, Research Assistant
"The bluedot festival was not the first time when I did outreach, however, it has left a great aftertaste! During this year at the bluedot festival, we had a chance to chat with many people. It was such fun to interact with people and to find out what exactly inspires them in science and why they decided to go to this mix of science and music festival in a first place.
Generally, about the outreach, I was very impressed when I found out myself how much particle accelerators do in our lives. I am super happy to share these ideas and knowledge with other people so they can see that the research we are doing in so vast and touching all aspects of our lives, starting from medicine and up to cars we are driving every day! I am trying to participate in as much outreach activities as possible in all variations. When at least one person tells me that they understood what I do for life, it makes me happy. When I can explain things I do in a way that makes other people’s eyes to lit up with a thought – Ah, I understand it now – what can be more rewarding?
Inevitable, this practise has made me aware what kind of information is interesting and important for various types of audience. I strongly believe that outreach made not only a better speaker and improved my way of explaining my research in general, but helped me in my path as an entrepreneur. As part of any kind of business discussion and especially for investments (and as an exercise as well), you can have only couple of minutes of someone’s attention. The trick is to grasp their focus and to explain why what you do is so important. It is incredible challenging to do so, and I think outreach has helped to be able to advance in it."