Dr Admir Greljo, a young Bosnian-Herzegovinian physicist and the only Bosnian-Herzegovinian working at the renowned CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), spent the last few days in Sarajevo.
Although he works at the world's largest physics laboratory, which built the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest particle accelerator, expected to advance human knowledge of the laws of nature, Greljo found time to pass on his knowledge to younger generations. He gave a series of lectures to students at the Faculty of Science, where he once studied, as well as to secondary school students.
Dr Greljo's engagement was made possible through the Knowledge Transfer from the Diaspora activity, part of the Diaspora for Development project, implemented by the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees of BiH and the Government of Switzerland, in partnership with UNDP and IOM in BiH.
During a break between his many commitments, he spoke to Radiosarajevo.ba about how he came to work at the gigantic laboratory on the Swiss–French border, which employs several thousand scientists, what it is like to work in such an environment, and about the activities of the Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology (ANNT), made up of young people from BiH who are achieving success all over the world.
Speaking about his path to success, he explains that after completing his undergraduate degree in physics at the Faculty of Science in Sarajevo, he decided to do a PhD in Slovenia. This was followed by various postdoctoral research positions and projects in Switzerland and Germany. As the theoretical physics he works on is studied experimentally at CERN, in 2017 he decided to apply and was offered a position in extremely strong competition. His success is all the more significant given that BiH is not a member of CERN, which makes the path much thornier.
“After four years of working on various projects at the universities of Zurich and Mainz, I applied for a fellowship at CERN. There were more than a hundred applicants, and of the candidates from non-member states of CERN they selected only two,” Greljo explains.
Asked what he works on and what it is like to work in a laboratory unlike any other in the world, Greljo says he works in the Theoretical Physics Department, which is small compared with the others.
“Most of the staff there are experimental physicists, engineers, people working on the technical side, doing practical things in the laboratory... Our job is to try to understand what is being measured and experimented on in the laboratory, and to try to explain those measurements and results theoretically. Our task is also to suggest what could be done next, to guide the experimental physicists and tell them which direction they should take...,” our interviewee says of the complex work and tasks he is engaged in.
He emphasises that working at CERN is a unique experience.
“I learn something every day, because it is a place with scientists from more than 100 countries; although it is a European laboratory, the scientists come from practically all over the world. Science is a common language, like music or sport, and it brings people together... CERN is a good example of this, because people work together trying to discover some of the deepest secrets and truths of the universe,” he tells us, not hiding his enthusiasm for his working environment.
Unfortunately, for now he has no compatriots at work, but he tells us this could soon change.
“As far as I know, apart from me, no one else from BiH works there, but cooperation is being expanded. CERN has signed its first agreement with the University of Sarajevo, which is a big and very important step. In addition, an agreement between CERN and the state of BiH is in the process of being signed. I, for example, had to go through a rigorous selection process to get the job. After agreements like these, access to the laboratory for our scientists will be made much easier; it will be simpler to apply and get a job... I hope this will be a nice and positive story. Now that the government has been formed, I expect that the agreement could be finalised next year. Bosnian-Herzegovinian companies working in advanced technologies, the IT sector and so on would also benefit from it, as they could bid in tenders,” says Greljo.
“CERN's budget is one and a half billion Swiss francs a year, so it is certainly an opportunity for BiH,” he says.
In the meantime, without waiting for the agreement, he is working hard to take some twenty physics teachers from our country to this sophisticated laboratory, which should happen in February next year. It is the first programme of its kind in our country.
“The idea is to bring around 20 secondary school teachers to CERN and prepare a special programme, of the kind that countries in our region have had for years. The plan is for them to have lectures and workshops and to visit the experiments, the Large Hadron Collider, the CMS detector… The idea is to motivate the teachers and inform them about the latest findings in elementary particle physics, all with the aim of improving the quality of teaching and what students hear,” he says with great enthusiasm.
As he says, students in our secondary schools start hearing about modern physics very late.
“They don't have a sense that physics is a living subject that develops every day, that there are thousands upon thousands of physicists making fantastic discoveries in laboratories such as CERN,” he adds.
The co-organiser of the project to take Bosnian-Herzegovinian teachers to CERN is ANNT, a non-governmental organisation headed by Greljo. The Association brings together mainly former Golden Badge students of the University of Sarajevo, who are now doing PhDs or postdoctoral research or are already professors at prestigious institutions in Europe and America.
“What we have in common is that we have experience and come from the education system of BiH, but we built our careers abroad. We joined forces with the aim of improving the infrastructure for scientific research in BiH,” says Greljo.
The most important project the Association has worked on so far is STEM Youth Camp for some 50 secondary school students from all parts of BiH, which has been held in Konjic for two years. As he explains, they select those who are oriented towards the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering, bring in prestigious experts in particular fields and give them an overview of the current state of research and the latest trends…
Although the members of the Association are scattered all over the world and have top-level careers… Greljo assures us that they are not losing touch with their homeland and that they want to offer their knowledge and experience to the country.
“Since almost everyone comes home for the holidays, yesterday we had a get-together of members of our Association. We came from three continents; these are people who work at MIT in America, at Google in London, and in Switzerland, the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries, Australia... They all gathered, set aside some of their time, and they are all interested in contributing and asking about the situation. These are young researchers, some of whom see themselves as professors at the University of Sarajevo if given the opportunity. We discuss other matters related to education and science in our country and future projects. So everyone has the energy, the desire and the will. Although we leave, we come back, and we will continue to do so; we are all attached to our country,” says Greljo.
Asked whether, on the other hand, the state shows a willingness to make use of Bosnian-Herzegovinian talent scattered around the world, Greljo says that so far they have not had any serious support.
“STEM Youth Camp, for example, was funded by the US Embassy, and for the teachers' trip to CERN we sought money from companies… However, I hope this will change, as we are currently in talks with the relevant ministries. As a non-governmental sector, we are trying to fill some gaps or improve the work of the government sector. We are extremely interested in moving in that direction and are offering our hand,” Greljo says.
Given that he is also a visiting professor at the Faculty of Science, an unavoidable topic of conversation was the education system in BiH. We ask him about the shortcomings of education in BiH, which were confirmed by the recently published results of the PISA survey.
“Those results are poor. I would attribute individual successes, for example those of ANNT members, to individual effort rather than to the system. These were students who received the University's Golden Badges and who, of course, learned a lot from their professors at university, but I think this came about primarily because they invested additional effort in themselves, were proactive, and looked at what was being studied, what literature was used and how things were done abroad. According to those results, at the level of top achievers we do not differ from neighbouring countries, but it is true that the system has failed the average student,” he believes.
It is dangerous that the best go abroad while the weaker ones teach in schools
Asked what needs to change to improve the state of education, Greljo immediately answers that it is the status of those employed in education.
“In Switzerland, for instance, teachers' salaries are well above the national average. Being a professor or a teacher is extremely prestigious. My experience, or at least what students in the Physics Department think, is that the best among them will go abroad somewhere and become scientists, those who are very good but don't want to go down that path will go to IT companies, and that the job of a physics teacher is something reserved for weaker students. I think this is extremely dangerous, because the job of a teacher or professor is one of the pillars of society, one of the most important professions in any society, because teachers influence the education and future of generation after generation of students. The system should somehow change this, reward it and give this profession the honour it deserves. Then students would have a different picture, and those who are good could say: 'We will be secondary school physics teachers; that is the profession we want.' I think that would help considerably,” Greljo concludes.
Source: radiosarajevo.ba.
