Summer Students: where are they now? The story of Komal Tauqeer
Meet Komal Tauqeer, 2019 Summer Student, who talks about her CERN journey and how her experience as a summer student has impacted her career.
with the Summer Students team
"I feel extremely lucky that I got the chance to become a part of CERN's Summer Student Programme. It was one the best things that happened to me. Not only did I get to learn science but also how to interact with people of different origins. I still remember all the days, the lectures, the tours and students gatherings at night. We had a lot of fun along with a lot of learning and grooming."
After her summer student experience, she has gone on to do a PhD:
"Based on my experience, I got a PhD position at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany in 2020 right after the completion of my Masters from Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan. I am currently posted at CERN and doing my PhD research here. My research is mainly based on Physics analysis "Polarization studies of Vector Boson Scattering with the CMS detector". Right now, I am mainly focusing on developing advanced Machine Learning techniques for my analysis.
Along with my PhD research, I am actively taking part in ongoing Run-3 activities at CERN which include preparation of Run3 Monte Carlo datasets for B-tagging calibration studies with the CMS experiment. I am also planning to become a shifter at P5 during Run-3 data taking phase. Apart from academia, I am also very interested in outreach programmes and organization of conferences at my university, for example, I am currently organizing the scientific program of upcoming German Female Physics Conference 2022 in Karlsruhe."
Komal concluded by saying how much she has benefitted from the CERN summer student programme:
"I believe that this is just a start of my career and there are a lot of exciting things on the horizon, whether they are scientific or not. The three months I spent at CERN as a summer student gave my life a perspective, a vision for my career, confidence to work in an international enviroment, self confidence to believe that I can contribute to the amazing science ongoing at CERN and last but not the least an opportunity to contribute to society."