A STUDENT is set to take up a dream opportunity working with some of the world’s top scientists.

Joshua Dawes, from Burnley, will travel to the famous CERN laboratory, in Switzerland, later this year to begin research using the Large Hadron Collider.

The 20-year-old will be on a placement from his course in computer science and maths at Manchester University for a year.

He said: “I am really looking forward to it.

“To do something like this before I even graduate from university is a privilege.”

While at CERN, where scientists use the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments to study the basic constituents of matter, Joshua, a former Nelson and Colne College pupil, will conduct a sub experiment called the Compact Muon Solenoid, aimed at investigating a wide range of physics.

But Joshua said when he first applied for the placement, he was not sure he would take up the spot.

“To get into CERN is amazing, my dream job really, but then to find out that I would be working on the LHC is quite brilliant.

“The experience of working on the CMS experiment on the LHC before I’ve graduated from university is an achievement I won’t easily top.

“I’m looking forward to living in Geneva and seeing the Lake and Alps, and working at the CERN site, which is a small city in itself.

“Since the LHC is running at full energy for the first time in 2015, software I work on will handle data that will help physicists to write new physics. I really can’t wait!”

A spokesman for Nelson and Colne College said: “The college is always thrilled to learn of its students’ ongoing success and was therefore excited to learn of Joshua’s accomplishment in gaining a prestigious placement working at CERN, one of the world’s leading centres for computer science and physics research, and the home of the most powerful particle accelerator in the world.”

It is a highly prestigious work placement, as CERN only accept 100 students per year. In order to apply, Joshua had to complete a rigorous application process that took about two weeks. He found out in December 2014 that he had been successful.

The Large Hadron Collider, which was built in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists, physicists, nuclear engineers and engineers of other specialisms from over 100 countries, is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. It was used to discover the Higgs Boson, by colliding protons at very high speeds.

The collider is situated in a tunnel 574ft beneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva.