The principal investigator for any institute joining an experimental collaboration is generally a self-assured researcher with evident leadership skills and in-depth knowledge of their subject gained over many years. Katherine Evans fits the brief in every respect, except that she is 17 years old and her research institute is the Langton Star Centre, based at the Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys.

The school has just joined the MoEDAL collaboration – the newest  experiment at the LHC that is designed to search for magnetic monopoles and other highly ionizing stable massive particles (CERN Courier September 2012 p10).

Under the leadership of teacher Becky Parker, Langton school has taken a ground-breaking approach to science, encouraging its students to participate in fundamental research alongside established research institutes and universities. Students there have been working with Timepix chips on a variety of projects for some time (CERN Courier May 2010 p22). It is this knowledge of Timepix, and specifically using it to monitor radiation, that interested MoEDAL.