European Organization for Nuclear Research

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (official name in Spanish), commonly known by the acronym CERN (provisional acronym used in 1952, which responds to the name in French Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, i.e. European Council for Nuclear Research), is a European research organization that operates the world's largest physics laboratory. The organization has 22 member states—Israel is the only non-European country granted full membership—and is officially observed by the United Nations.

The laboratory, also known by the acronym CERN, is located in Switzerland near the border with France, between the commune of Saint-Genis-Pouilly (in the department of Ain) and the commune of Meyrin (in the canton of Geneva).

As an international facility, CERN is not officially under French or Swiss jurisdiction. Member states jointly contribute CHF 1 billion (approximately EUR 664 million or $1 billion).

The center was awarded in 2013 with the Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research together with Peter Higgs and François Englert.

History

The CERN in 2012: Member States.candidate States.Possible future candidates.

Founded in 1954 by 12 European countries, CERN is today a model of international scientific collaboration and one of the most important research centers in the world. It currently has 21 member states, which share financing and decision-making in the organization. In addition, another 28 non-member countries participate with scientists from 220 institutes and universities in projects at CERN using its facilities. Of these non-member countries, eight states and organizations have observer status, participating in council meetings.

CERN's first great scientific success came in 1984, when Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer won the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the W and Z bosons. In 1992 it was Georges Charpak's turn "for the invention and development of particle detectors, in particular the multi-wire proportional chamber'.

CEO

The general director, by scientific tradition, is appointed by the organization and has a term of five years, counting from January 1. The list of general directors that CERN has had is the following:

• Edoardo Amaldi, secretary general of the organization from September 1952 until September 1954;
• Felix Bloch, from October 1954 to August 1955;
• Cornelis Bakker, September 1955 until his death in a plane crash in April 1960;
• John Bertram Adams, Acting Director from May 1960 to July 1961;
• Victor Weisskopf from August 1961 to December 1965;
• Bernard Paul Gregory, from January 1966 to December 1970;
• Daniel Williams Moreno Velarde, director of the Meyrin I Laboratory from January 1971 to December 1975;
• John Bertram Adams, director of Laboratory II of Prévessin from January 1971 to December 1975;
• John Bertram Adams, Chief Executive Officer from January 1976 to December 1980;
• Léon Charles Van Hove, Director-General of Inquiry from January 1976 to December 1980;
• Herwig Schopper, from January 1981 to December 1988;
• Carlo Rubbia from January 1989 to December 1993;
• Christopher Llewellyn Smith, from January 1994 to December 1998;
• Luciano Maiani, from January 1999 to December 2003;
• Robert Aymar, from January 2004 to December 2008;
• Rolf Dieter Heuer, from January 2009 to December 2015;
• Fabiola Gianotti, since January 2016.

Operation

CERN is located in Switzerland, near Geneva, and close to the border with France. It has a series of particle accelerators, among which the already dismantled large collider of electrons and positrons stands out. Currently, the Large Hadron Collider has been built in its place, a proton-proton accelerator planned to operate at higher energy and luminosity (there will be more collisions per second) of 27 km in circumference and which is the largest particle accelerator built to date. Financed with the collaboration of 60 countries, it made possible the confirmation of the existence of the Higgs boson. The first test of the latter was successfully conducted on September 10, 2008.

CERN's success is not only its ability to produce scientific results of great interest, but also the development of new computing and industrial technologies. Among the first, the invention of the World Wide Web by the scientists Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau stands out in 1990, but we must not forget the development and maintenance of important mathematical libraries (CERNLIB now called ROOT) used for many years in most scientific centers, or even mass storage systems (the large hadron collider will store a volume of data on the order of several PB each year). By the end of 2010, CERN executives announced that they had managed to produce and capture antimatter atoms for a period of more than a tenth of a second. This fact is very important for science since it opens up a field that, at least in practice, was unknown and could provide energy in immense quantities.

Members

Globe of Science and Innovation, at the heart of CERN (Geneva, Switzerland).

Shiva statue dancing like Nataraja at CERN.

Member States

The twelve founding members were:

• GermanyGermany (then West Germany)
• BelgiumBelgium
• DenmarkDenmark
• France
• GreeceGreece
• ItalyItaly
• Norway Norway
• NetherlandsNetherlands
• United KingdomUnited Kingdom
• Sweden Sweden
• SwitzerlandSwitzerland
• Yugoslavia, then withdrew

All founding members remained at CERN, except for Yugoslavia, which withdrew in 1961 and never joined again.

Since its founding, CERN has regularly accepted new members. All of them remained within the organization continuously, except Spain, which joined in 1961, withdrew in 1969 and rejoined in 1983. Austria would also announce in 2009 its decision to leave for 2010, although it finally remained a member. The list of members throughout history is as follows:

• AustriaAustria joined in 1959 (13 members);
• SpainSpain joined in 1961, joined again in 1983 (13 members);
• Portugal joined in 1985 (14 members);
• FinlandFinland joined in 1991 (15 members);
• PolandPoland joined in 1991 (16 members);
• HungaryHungary joined in 1992 (17 members);
• Czech RepublicCzech Republic joined in 1993;
• Slovakia Slovakia joined in 1993 (together with the Czech Republic, increasing the membership to 19);
• BulgariaBulgaria joined in 1999 (20 member states);
• IsraelIsrael joined in 2013 (21 member states).
• Romania Romania joined in 2016 (22 member states).
• SerbiaSerbia joined in 2018 (23 member states).

There are currently 23 member states.

Associate Members

• CroatiaCroatia
• India
• LithuaniaLithuania
• PakistanPakistan
• TurkeyTurkey
• Ukraine Ukraine

Budget 2019

Member State	contribution	A thousand. CHF	A thousand. EUR
AustriaAustria	2,16	24,67	21,70
BelgiumBelgium	2.68	30.69	27,00
BulgariaBulgaria	0.30	3,390	2,983
SwitzerlandSwitzerland	0.95	10,86	9,55
DenmarkDenmark	1.79	20,45	17.99
FinlandFinland	1.32	15.12	13,30
France	14,02	160.3	141.06
GermanyGermany	20,64	236,0	207,68
GreeceGreece	1.09	12,45	10,95
HungaryHungary	0.61	6,965	6,129
IsraelIsrael	1.73	19,73	17,36
ItalyItaly	10,36	118.4	104.19
NetherlandsNetherlands	4.53	51,84	45,61
Norway Norway	2.48	28,34	24,93
PolandPoland	2.79	31,87	28,04
Portugal	1.09	12,48	10,98
Romania Romania	1.05	11,96	10,52
Slovakia Slovakia	0.49	5.605	4,932
SpainSpain	7.06	80.68	70.99
Sweden Sweden	2.66	30.45	26,79
SwitzerlandSwitzerland	4,122	47.11	41,45
United KingdomUnited Kingdom	16,09	183.9	161.83

Exchange rate: 1 CHF = 0.88 EUR (21 February 2019)

Observers and involved

Six international organizations or countries have “observer status”:

• European Commission
• United States
• Central Nuclear Research Institute (submitted since March 2022)
• JapanJapan
• Russia Russia (subpended since March 2022)
• UNESCO

The list of non-member countries involved in CERN programs is made up of Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus (suspended since March 2022), Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Georgia, Ghana, Hong Kong, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Jordan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Madagascar, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Oman, Palestine, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam.

Mailing address

Any direction can be used

• European Organization for Nuclear Research

CERN CH-1211 Geneva 23 Switzerland

• Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire

F-01631 CERN Cedex Francelos