Crafting Careers in Experimental Particle Physics: Junior Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider

• In Event: Transforming Early Academic Careers: Global Challenges and Individual Trajectories - II: Crafting the Academic Self

Abstract

Early career researchers employed on temporary contracts constitute about half of the active research workforce in experimental particle physics collaborations at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. Compared to the previous generation of experiments (cf. Knorr Cetina 1999), these geographically dispersed, multi-national and multi-institutional research collaborations have increased by a factor of ten. This unprecedented social and technical complexity creates novel organisational challenges, and requires specific strategies of ECRs in terms of establishing credibility and transitioning toward independent research (Laudel & Gläser, 2008). How the needs of ECRs – e.g., for individual recognition, representation, and career support – can be better addressed within the collaborations has recently become a more explicit concern in the particle physics community.
However, the experiences of ECRs in particle physics collaborations diverge along a number of dimensions: They are engaging in different kinds of work (data analysis, technical engineering, software development), embedded in different institutional and national contexts and in working groups of different size and prestige. Moreover, personal circumstances may affect the individual capacity to conform to the expectations of a highly competitive environment, combined with precarious short-term contracts and the requirement of international mobility. How do these different factors influence ECRs’ career aspirations, and how are they reflected in their work and collaboration practices? Drawing on interviews with ECRs and senior collaboration members, I describe strategies and expectations towards crafting a career (Müller 2017) in contemporary particle physics, and analyse how they reflect transforming “regimes of valuation” (Fochler, Felt, & Müller 2016) in academic work.

Author

• Helene Sorgner, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt | Wien | Graz