| Director-General of CERN | |
|---|---|
| Directeur général or Directrice générale | |
| Abbreviation | DG |
| Reports to | CERN Council |
| Appointer | CERN Council |
| Term length | 5 years typical length |
| Precursor | Secretary-General |
| Formation | October 1954 |
| First holder | Felix Bloch |
CERN directors general typically serve 5 year terms beginning on January 1.
| In office | Directors General | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1952–1954 | Edoardo Amaldi (Secretary-General) [1] |  Italy |
| 1954–1955 | Felix Bloch [2] |  Switzerland |
| 1955–1960 | Cornelis Bakker |  Netherlands |
| 1960–1961 | John Adams (acting director) |  United Kingdom |
| 1961–1965 | Victor Frederick Weisskopf |  United States |
| 1966–1970 | Bernard Gregory |  France |
| 1971–1975 | Willibald Jentschke (co-directors) |  Austria |
| John Adams (co-directors) | United Kingdom | |
| 1976–1980 | Léon Van Hove (co-directors) [3] |  Belgium |
| John Adams (co-directors) | United Kingdom | |
| 1981–1988 | Herwig Schopper [4] |  Germany |
| 1989–1993 | Carlo Rubbia | Italy |
| 1994–1998 | Christopher Llewellyn Smith | United Kingdom |
| 1999–2003 | Luciano Maiani |  San Marino |
| 2004–2008 | Robert Aymar | France |
| 2009–2015 | Rolf-Dieter Heuer | Germany |
| 2016–2020 | Fabiola Gianotti | Italy |
| 2021–2025 | Fabiola Gianotti | Italy |
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Geneva, on the France–Switzerland border. It comprises 23 member states. Israel, admitted in 2013, is the only non-European full member. CERN is an official United Nations General Assembly observer.
Carlo Rubbia is an Italian particle physicist and inventor who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984 with Simon van der Meer for work leading to the discovery of the W and Z particles at CERN.
Lanškroun is a town in Ústí nad Orlicí District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 9,300 inhabitants. It lies on the border of the historical lands of Bohemia and Moravia. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone.
The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics is an international non-governmental organization whose mission is to assist in the worldwide development of physics, to foster international cooperation in physics, and to help in the application of physics toward solving problems of concern to humanity. It was established in 1922 and the first General Assembly was held in 1923 in Paris. The Union is domiciled in Geneva, Switzerland.
Simon van der Meer was a Dutch particle accelerator physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984 with Carlo Rubbia for contributions to the CERN project which led to the discovery of the W and Z particles, the two fundamental communicators of the weak interaction.
The Underground Area 2 (UA2) experiment was a high-energy physics experiment at the Proton-Antiproton Collider — a modification of the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) — at CERN. The experiment ran from 1981 until 1990, and its main objective was to discover the W and Z bosons. UA2, together with the UA1 experiment, succeeded in discovering these particles in 1983, leading to the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physics being awarded to Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer. The UA2 experiment also observed the first evidence for jet production in hadron collisions in 1981, and was involved in the searches of the top quark and of supersymmetric particles. Pierre Darriulat was the spokesperson of UA2 from 1981 to 1986, followed by Luigi Di Lella from 1986 to 1990.
The UA1 experiment was a high-energy physics experiment that ran at CERN's Proton-Antiproton Collider, a modification of the one-beam Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). The data was recorded between 1981 and 1990. The joint discovery of the W and Z bosons by this experiment and the UA2 experiment in 1983 led to the Nobel Prize for physics being awarded to Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer in 1984. Peter Kalmus and John Dowell, from the UK groups working on the project, were jointly awarded the 1988 Rutherford Medal and Prize from the Institute of Physics for their outstanding roles in the discovery of the W and Z particles.
The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) is a particle accelerator of the synchrotron type at CERN. It is housed in a circular tunnel, 6.9 kilometres (4.3 mi) in circumference, straddling the border of France and Switzerland near Geneva, Switzerland.
Edoardo Amaldi was an Italian physicist. He coined the term "neutrino" in conversations with Enrico Fermi distinguishing it from the heavier "neutron". He has been described as "one of the leading nuclear physicists of the twentieth century." He was involved in the anti-nuclear peace movement.
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The European Physical Society (EPS) is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to promote physics and physicists in Europe through methods such as physics outreach. Formally established in 1968, its membership includes the national physical societies of 42 countries, and some 3200 individual members. The Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft, the world's largest and oldest organisation of physicists, is a major member.
The Cyprus Institute is a non-profit research and educational institution with a strong scientific and technological orientation. It was formally established in 2005, and started operations in 2007.
Alan Astbury (1934–2014) was a Canadian physicist, emeritus professor at the University of Victoria, and director of the Tri-Universities Meson Facility (TRIUMF) laboratory.
Sergio Fubini was an Italian theoretical physicist. He was one of the pioneers of string theory. He was engaged in peace activism in the Middle East.
Miguel Boyer was a Spanish economist and politician, who served as minister of economy, treasury and commerce from 1982 to 1985.
Emilio Picasso was an Italian physicist. For most of his career, he served as a researcher at CERN and was project leader for the Large Electron-Positron Collider (LEP), one of the largest particle accelerators ever constructed. Picasso was awarded the Legion of Honour from France and is also bearer of the Knight Grand Cross of the Italian Republic, Italy's highest civilian honor. When he passed, his hometown newspaper called it a moment of mourning for "the international scientific community and for Pisa."
The Super Proton–Antiproton Synchrotron was a particle accelerator that operated at CERN from 1981 to 1991. To operate as a proton-antiproton collider the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) underwent substantial modifications, altering it from a one beam synchrotron to a two-beam collider. The main experiments at the accelerator were UA1 and UA2, where the W and Z bosons were discovered in 1983. Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer received the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physics for their contributions to the SppS-project, which led to the discovery of the W and Z bosons. Other experiments conducted at the SppS were UA4, UA5 and UA8.
Robert Elie Klapisch was a French engineer and physicist.
Tord Johan Carl Ekelöf is a Swedish professor of particle physics at Uppsala University.
| Large Hadron Collider (LHC) | |
|---|---|
| Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP) | |
| Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) | |
| Proton Synchrotron (PS) | |
| Linear accelerators | |
| Other accelerators | |
| ISOLDE facility | |
| Non-accelerator experiments | |
| Future projects | |
| Related articles | |
