Why outreach matters
Our department believes that cutting-edge nuclear physics should be open, understandable, and inspiring for everyone. Outreach is how we build trust with society, encourage young people to pursue scientific careers, and show how accelerators, detectors, and radioisotopes can improve everyday life—from medicine and cultural heritage to energy and the environment.
Through school visits, institute tours, hands-on activities, and collaborations with teachers and researchers, we bring the world of particles, atoms, and isotopes closer to the community and create long-term partnerships with the education system.
School visits and the Horizon project
Bringing nuclear physics to classrooms across Romania
We regularly visit schools to show students what it means to work in applied nuclear physics. Using simple demonstrations, interactive talks, and examples from our research, we explain how accelerators, detectors, and radioisotopes are used in medicine, environmental studies, cultural heritage, and industry.
Through the Horizon project, we travel especially to schools in less advantaged areas of Romania. Together with teachers and local partners, we organise full-day events where pupils learn about nuclear physics in a friendly and accessible way, try hands-on activities, and discuss career paths in science and engineering.
- Age-adapted presentations about atoms, radiation, and applications.
- Interactive experiments and simple detector demonstrations.
- Q&A sessions about studying physics and working in a research institute.
- Support materials for teachers for follow-up activities in class.
Tours of the institute and accelerators
Opening the doors of our laboratories
We organise guided tours of IFIN‑HH and our accelerator facilities for universities, schools, and invited guests. Visitors can see the 3 MV and 1 MV Tandetron accelerators, learn how ion beams are produced and transported, and discover how we use them for analysis, materials modification, and radiocarbon dating.
Tours typically include a general introduction in a seminar room, followed by visits to the accelerator halls and associated laboratories (detectors, electronics, chemistry labs). For safety reasons, access is planned in advance and adapted to the age and background of the group.
- Dedicated sessions for high-school and university students.
- Special programmes during events such as „Școala altfel”.
- Opportunities to meet researchers and ask questions about their work.
Collaborations and partnerships
Working together with teachers, institutes, and researchers
Outreach is a team effort. We collaborate closely with schools, universities, teacher associations, and other research institutes in Romania and abroad. Our researchers contribute to workshops, summer schools, public lectures, and science festivals, often in partnership with national and international projects.
These collaborations help us align our outreach content with school curricula, support teachers with up-to-date materials, and connect students with real research questions and experiments. Many of our activities also tie in with our broader research collaborations (CERN, FAIR, IAEA, and others) and highlight the role of Romania in global science.
Outreach gallery
Moments from visits, Horizon activities, and tours
Build-your-own accelerator
An open-hardware model we bring to fairs and classrooms
One of our most popular demos is a working desktop model of a particle accelerator — a ferromagnetic ball pulled along a track by precisely-timed electromagnets, built in-house with 3D printing and an Arduino. It makes the staged-acceleration idea behind our real machines something visitors can watch and understand in seconds.
It is open hardware: the block diagram, 3D models, wiring and control code are documented so schools and students can rebuild it.
See how it worksBring us to your classroom
Are you a teacher, school coordinator or university group who would like a visit, a talk, or a guided tour of our accelerators? We would love to hear from you. Tours and school activities — including the Horizon project and „Școala altfel” programme — are arranged by prior appointment, so please get in touch well in advance.
Invite us / book a visit Student opportunities