Today, CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, is hosting a special high-level ceremony to celebrate its 70th anniversary, attended by 38 national delegations. It is hosted in the CERN Science Gateway, the new hub for education and outreach bridging science to the general public.
“I am very honoured to welcome representatives from our Member and Associate Member States, our Observers and our partners from all over the world on this very special day”, said Fabiola Gianotti, CERN Director-General. “CERN is a great success for Europe and its global partners, and our founders would be very proud to see what CERN has accomplished over the seven decades of its life. The aspirations and values that motivated those founders remain firmly anchored in our Organization today: the pursuit of scientific knowledge and technological developments for the benefit of humanity; training and education; collaboration across borders, diversity and inclusion; knowledge, technology and education accessible to society at no cost; and a great dose of boldness and determination to pursue paths that border on the impossible.”
CERN in Geneva has been at the forefront of global particle physics since 1954. At the particle lab, the frontiers of knowledge are pushed a little further every day. This is how people learn more and more about the fundamental building blocks of the universe.
In CERN’s 70 years of existence, many discoveries have been made. From the W and Z bosons to antihydrogen and from CP symmetry violation to the Higgs particle, among many others. Moreover, the World Wide Web was conceived and developed here.
The Netherlands has been involved in CERN from the very beginning as one of the 12 co-founders. Nikhef coordinates and leads all Dutch particle physics research at the CERN experiments ALICE, ATLAS and LHCb at CERN.
Read more about Nikhef’s contribution to CERN in this article in Nikhef magazine DIMENSIES.
Read the press release on the CERN website: https://home.cern/news/press-release/cern/blowing-out-70-candles-cern-celebrates-seven-decades-discoveries-and-looks
