CERN : research and innovation at a major research facility

Ursula Bassler has been President of the Council of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva, and chargé de mission for parity and scientific outreach at the CNRS Institute for Nuclear and Particle Physics (IN2P3) since January^1, 2019.

Following her PhD obtained in 1993 at Pierre-et-Marie-Curie University, her research activities in particle physics are dedicated to the study of proton structure and quark top properties, as well as the instruments required for this field of research. She has participated in international collaborations involving several hundred scientists at particle colliders in Germany (HERA at DESY, Hamburg) and the USA (TeVatron at Fermilab, near Chicago). She subsequently headed the particle physics department at CEA-IRFU (2007-2013), before being appointed deputy scientific director for particle physics and computing at IN2P3 and then deputy director of the Institute between 2016 and 2018.

Abstract

CERN : research and innovation at a major research facility

On July 4, 2012, the discovery of the Higgs boson was announced at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva. The news made headlines around the world, and CERN became a symbol of the success of "big science".

For 65 years, the largest research infrastructure ever built has been rising at CERN, gradually incorporating state-of-the-art facilities to probe beyond the limits of possibility into the structure of the infinitely small, and advance our knowledge of the origin and evolution of the Universe.

Today, more than 13,000 users benefit from CERN's research facilities. Together with the center's highly qualified staff and the innovative companies that support them, they form a cutting-edge technological ecosystem that is constantly improving the facilities to meet ever more extreme experimental requirements: obtaining ever more precise measurements, producing collisions at ever higher energies, and managing ever greater quantities of data.

Work on the future European particle physics strategy is currently underway, and its conclusions will be presented in spring 2020. The questions posed are many and crucial: which direction should be favored to enable major scientific advances in this century? How can we meet the technological challenges posed? What role should CERN and Europe play in a project of global scope?