"The European Particle Physics Laboratory marked its 70th anniversary at a ceremony that brought together delegations from all the member and associate countries."
CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, which today holds global scientific and technological leadership in this scientific field, is celebrating its 70th anniversary. The anniversary ceremony, held on October 1st at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, was attended by delegations from all member and associate countries, represented at the highest level. The Portuguese delegation was led by Professor Ana Paiva, Secretary of State for Science, and included Professor Madalena Alves, President of the Foundation for Science and Technology, the Portuguese delegates to the CERN Council, and members of the board of LIP, the Laboratory for Instrumentation and Experimental Particle Physics.
Portugal joined CERN in 1985, officially becoming a member on January 1st, 1986, thanks to the initiative of Professor José Mariano Gago, with LIP being founded in 1986 with the mission of coordinating Portuguese participation in CERN's scientific activities. Membership in CERN was a decisive milestone for the internationalization of science in Portugal and fostered talent development in the fields of particle physics and associated technologies. CERN is also a hub for technological innovation, having given the world the World Wide Web and developed technologies widely used in fields such as medicine and aerospace.
CERN has also been an essential platform for the training of Portuguese engineers and scientists: more than 200 young engineers have participated in training programs at CERN. Additionally, LIP, in collaboration with the Instituto Camões and the Ciência Viva Agency, organizes an annual school at CERN that brings together secondary school teachers from Portuguese-speaking countries.
Founded on September 29, 1954, CERN was established with the mission of revitalizing European scientific research after the devastation of World War II. The CERN Convention sets forth the goal of scientific development for peaceful purposes and the open sharing of all results with society. Currently, CERN has 24 Member States, including Portugal, as well as 10 Associate Member States and various international partners. Its impact extends worldwide, with a global community of more than 17,000 people from 110 nationalities working to unravel the greatest mysteries of the universe, such as the nature of dark matter and the fundamental properties of the Higgs boson, discovered in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2012.
