Expedition to the Future – Day 4: Where Curiosity Meets Innovation

What connects high school students from Latvia with the world’s most advanced science lab? More than you think. On our fourth day at CERN, we stepped into the future — not just by exploring mind-blowing experiments and technologies, but by meeting the brilliant Latvians already helping to build that future from within. From hands-on learning in the Science Gateway to conversations with researchers and innovators, today showed us that curiosity, determination, and a little bit of home can take you anywhere — even to the heart of CERN.

Today we visited the Science Gateway at CERN – a place where science becomes real through hands-on learning. For three hours we explored interactive exhibitions about the Large Hadron Collider, particle detectors, the history of CERN, and how science changes our everyday life. We touched real equipment, played with experiments, and saw how even small discoveries can lead to big change. One student said: “Now I finally understand what CERN really does – and it’s amazing!”

In the afternoon, we had a very special meeting with Latvian scientists and experts working at CERN. It was an inspiring moment to hear Kārlis Dreimanis, associate professor from RTU, explain how Latvia is part of the global mission of CERN. He told us about real work Latvians are doing in the CMS experiment, in research, and in data analysis. It made us feel proud and motivated — people from our own country are helping to understand the universe.

We also met Alise Pīka-Ozola, who leads the Latvian Office for Innovation and Technology in Switzerland. She explained how technologies created at CERN are transferred to companies and how businesses support scientific progress. It was exciting to see how science and innovation go hand in hand — not only in labs but also in real life.

Alongside them were other Latvian representatives working in different fields at CERN: Guntis Pikurs, Dace Osīte, Andris Ratkus, and Ojārs Mārtiņš Eberliņš. Each of them shared their own stories and paths that brought them here. Some came from science, others from technology and international cooperation. It showed us that there are many ways to be part of the world of science — and that Latvia is already there.

We ended the day full of new ideas. CERN is not just about experiments — it’s about people from all over the world working together, sharing knowledge, and building the future. And today, we saw that Latvians are a real part of that future.