Harwell Campus Day: RAL Particle Physics Tour

About Harwell Campus Day: RAL Particle Physics Tour

Join us for an exclusive tour of the Particle Physics Department Exhibition Room at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory during the Atom Festival. Discover what we do at the forefront of particle physics research and learn about the building blocks of matter—elementary particles—and how we detect them.

Our exhibition features 34 fascinating exhibits, including retired silicon strip and pixel detectors, trigger front-end boards, calorimeters, and scale models of the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN. You’ll gain insights into the three major detectors at the Large Hadron Collider—ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb—as well as groundbreaking experiments like Super-Kamiokande for neutrinos, ZEPLIN I and II for dark matter at Boulby, and the Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment at ISIS.

The tour also includes a look at the ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITK) clean room from the outside and showcases advanced detector technologies that power modern particle physics. Whether you’re curious about the universe’s smallest components or the technology behind world-class experiments, this is your chance to see science in action!

Numbers for this tour are limited so please do not delay booking as the system will cut off ticket purchases when capacity is reached. Please do not book unless you know that you can bring with you an original, physical piece of photo ID (such as a passport or driving licence.)

The tour starts at 12.45 on Harwell Campus, giving participants a chance to join the Harwell Heritage Tour beforehand and stop at the LIghtBox Cafe for a coffee or a light lunch. Please buy tickets for both tours if you plan to do this. We will muster at the end of the rest-stop in Quad 1 at 12.35 ready to walk across to RAL.
Those arriving to do the Particle Physics Tour only should park in the Lumen House Car Park (via Fermi Avenue and Eighth) and arrive at RAL Reception for 12.45

Adult ticket £3
Child ticket (18 and under) £2