Hi to all of you, can you review my motivation letter? Thanks sincerely.n

Dear members of Selection Committee,

I am writing to express my great interest in applying for the CERN Summer Student Program.

In high school I graduated with mathematics and physics as my majors. I continued with studies in Physics at University of Ferrara, where I obtained a three-year Bachelor’s Degree in September 2021, and right after I decided to continue my academic career with a Master’s Degree at University of Ferrara.

During my bachelor’s studies I acquired a solid background both in experimental and theoretical physics, through specific courses and laboratories. I developed a genuine passion for physics, which together with hard work and persistence was crucial in order to reach all my academic goals and in placing myself at the very top of my class.

My Bachelor’s thesis was a unique opportunity for me. I have worked for about eight months in close collaboration with inspiring researchers of VMB@CERN, a high precision experiment that aims to measure vacuum magnetic birefringence. This has been undoubtedly what made my mind clear about my irresistible inclination towards research. My thesis consisted of a combined theoretical and experimental study of a new optical scheme for the experiment, which plans to use a spare LHC dipole magnet at CERN. I explored a large variety of theoretical aspects in order to understand deeply non linear magneto - optical properties of vacuum, including: optics, nonlinear optics, laser physics, classical and quantum electrodynamics. For what concerns the experimental side, I studied mainly unwanted spurious signals generated by a rotating optical element that was added to the new setup, with an emphasis on understating the various requirements in order to measure the desired effect. Furthermore, I improved my computational skills on my own, concretely I performed data analysis part using ROOT and C++ language. With my thesis studies and results I contributed to a research paper published on EPJ C in February 2022.

My Master studies are focused on theoretical courses of which I am passionate, regarding mainly Quantum Field Theory, Subnuclear Physics, Advanced Electromagnetism and High Energy Astrophysics. But I have in mind to focus my Master thesis as well as my future career (Ph.D.) on experimental and phenomenological aspects: I am fascinated by measurement techniques and statistical methods and doing experiments is always challenging and stimulating to me. During my career I realised that in order to develop a great ability to design and draw conclusions from experiments, I must have a deep knowledge of theoretical aspects.

On a personal side, I am a very dedicated person with a strong sense of responsibility towards my work. I like to challenge myself in every aspect of my life, and for me that doesn’t mean just studying hard, since having my own time is essential and inspires my creativity. I often do outside reading and independent study: I am passionate about history and philosophy since high school years, whereas art and has been my passion since I was a child. I am a nature lover, I love hiking and going for long runs, but in general I enjoy every kind of sport. I was born and raised in Romania and at the age of 10 my family and I moved to Italy. My parents wanted to give my brother and me a better chance at education. Moving to a new country was really hard, but made me understand life’s powerful lessons: the richness in diversity of cultures, the importance of having different perspectives on life and of developing adaptability skills.

I decided to apply for this exciting program for many reasons, and I am highly motivated about that. I feel like never before a strong desire to meet students and researchers from all over the world who inspire me, both personally and academically. At the same time my ambitions are to make a valuable contribution and to discover what I think are my limits and see if they really are my limits. I am sure that this exchange will enrich me, will add value and determine a turning point in my professional and personal life.

Currently I am studying Subnuclear Physics and QFT, and I am discovering them as my main fields of interest. I see this program as a unique opportunity for learning about: experimental aspects concerning high precision measurements in low and high energy domains; optical techniques; new physics beyond the standard model; data analysis and machine learning.

I hope that with my academic background and competences as well as my aspirations I will match your expectations.
Sincerely thank you for consideration.
Respectfully yours,

AMS