In order to help members of the personnel who may need assistance, the Organization has decided to set up individual tax consultation sessions with the French tax authorities (Service des Impôts des Particuliers (SIP) de Valserhône) to answer questions on income tax matters in France. 

These consultations will take place on the Meyrin site, on Friday 26 April 2024 and will be run by six representatives of the SIP. The sessions will require pre-booking an appointment via this portal.

There are a limited number of time slots available, so we recommend you sign up early.

Please note that these meetings will be in French. Should you need any assistance with the language, we advise you to ask a French-speaking colleague for help.

For any questions regarding these meetings, please contact SIPTax.support@cern.ch

The Organization would like to remind members of the personnel that they must comply with the national legislation applicable to them (cf. Article S V 2.02 of the Staff Rules).

I - Internal tax annual certificate and individual annual statement for 2023
The internal tax annual certificate or the individual annual statement for 2023, issued by the Finance and Administrative Processes Department, is available since 12 February 2024 via  MyFiles (under “Financial and Social Benefits”). It is intended exclusively for the tax authorities.

1. If you are currently a member of the CERN personnel, you will have received an e-mail containing a link to your certificate or statement, which you can print if necessary.
2. If you are no longer a member of the CERN personnel or are unable to access your certificate or statement as indicated above, you will find information explaining how to obtain one on this page.

II - 2024 tax declaration form of 2023 income in France
The 2024 tax declaration form for 2023 income must be completed following the general indications available on this page.

If you have any specific questions, please contact your local “Service des impôts des particuliers” (SIP, Private Citizens’ Tax Office) directly.

HR-Internal-tax@cern.ch

The experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) require high-performance event-selection systems – known as “triggers” in particle physics – to filter the flow of data to manageable levels. The triggers pick events with distinguishing characteristics, such as interactions or collisions of particles recorded in particle detectors, and make them available for physics analyses. In just a few seconds, the complex system can determine whether the information about a given collision event is worth keeping or not. 

The ATLAS and CMS experiments use triggers on two levels. The first trigger runs in sync with the rate of particle bunches colliding in the detectors, deciding in less than 10 microseconds which data to keep. Events that pass the first-level trigger move on to the second high-level trigger for further selection. The selected events are then sent to the CERN Data Centre, where the data is copied, stored and eventually made available to scientists around the world for data analysis.  

In preparation for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), the ATLAS and CMS detectors are being upgraded with finer spatial and timing granularity, which will result in more data for each collision. The principle is the same as taking a picture with a camera with more pixels: the resulting file will be bigger because the image contains more detail, and the picture will be of higher quality. To prepare for the data deluge expected when the LHC enters the high-luminosity era, scientists need to develop new strategies for more sophisticated event processing and selection.

The key objective of the five-year Next-Generation Triggers (NextGen) project is to get more physics information out of the HL-LHC data. The hope is to uncover as-yet-unseen phenomena by more efficiently selecting interesting physics events while rejecting background noise. Scientists will make use of neural network optimisation, quantum-inspired algorithms, high-performance computing and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) techniques to improve the theoretical modelling and optimise their tools in the search for ultra-rare events.

The foundations of the NextGen project were laid in 2022 when a group of private donors, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, visited CERN. This first inspiring visit eventually evolved into an agreement with the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation, approved by the CERN Council in October 2023, to fund a project that would pave the way for the future trigger systems at the HL-LHC and beyond: NextGen was born.

NextGen will collaborate with experts in academia and industry. The work builds on the open-science and knowledge-sharing principles embedded in CERN's institutional governance and modus operandi. The project includes a work package dedicated to education and outreach, a unique multi-disciplinary training programme for NextGen researchers and targeted events and conferences for the wider community of scientists interested in the field. The intellectual property generated as part of the NextGen Triggers project, owned by CERN, will be released and shared under open licences in compliance with the CERN Open Science Policy.

The NextGen Triggers project will mark a new chapter in in high-energy physics, leveraging upgraded event-selection systems and data-processing techniques to unlock a realm of discoveries.  

Following damages caused by a car accident on Wednesday 10 April in the morning, Entrance C on the Meyrin site (Route Maxwell) will remain closed for vehicles until further notice.

The entrance will remain accessible to pedestrians and bicycles.

Our Security Service and DSO (Departmental Safety Officer) are fully committed to provide a response to the needs for traffic and gate reopening as soon as possible.

Thank you for your understanding.

Once a particle of matter, always a particle of matter. Or not. Thanks to a quirk of quantum physics, four known particles made up of two different quarks – such as the electrically neutral D meson composed of a charm quark and an up antiquark – can spontaneously oscillate into their antimatter partners and vice versa.

At a seminar held recently at CERN, the LHCb collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) presented the results of its latest search for matter–antimatter asymmetry in the oscillation of the neutral D meson, which, if found, could help shed light on the mysterious matter–antimatter imbalance in the Universe.

The weak force of the Standard Model of particle physics induces an asymmetry between matter and antimatter, known as CP violation, in particles containing quarks. However, these sources of CP violation are difficult to study and are insufficient to explain the matter–antimatter imbalance in the Universe, leading physicists to both search for new sources and to study the known ones better than ever before.

In their latest endeavour, the LHCb researchers have rolled up their sleeves to measure with unprecedented precision a set of parameters that determine the matter–antimatter oscillation of the neutral D meson and enable the search for the hitherto unobserved but predicted CP violation in the oscillation.

The collaboration had previously measured the same set of parameters, which are linked to the decay of the neutral D meson into a positively charged kaon and a negatively charged pion, using its full data set from Run 1 of the LHC and a partial data set from Run 2. This time around, the team analysed the full Run-2 data set and, by combining the result with that of its previous analysis, excluding the partial Run-2 data set, it obtained the most precise measurements of the parameters to date – the overall measurement uncertainty is 1.6 times smaller than the smallest uncertainty achieved before by LHCb.

The results are consistent with previous studies, confirming the matter–antimatter oscillation of the neutral D meson and showing no evidence of CP violation in the oscillation. The findings call for future analyses of this and other decays of the neutral D meson using data from the third run of the LHC and its planned upgrade, the High-Luminosity LHC.

Other neutral D meson decays of interest include the decay into a pair of two kaons or two pions, in which LHCb researchers observed CP violation in particles containing charm quarks for the first time, and the decay into a neutral kaon and a pair of pions, with which LHCb clocked the speed of the particle’s matter–antimatter oscillation. No avenue should be left unexplored in the search for clues to the matter–antimatter imbalance in the Universe and other cosmic mysteries.

Find out more on the LHCb website.

CERN’s Neutrino Platform houses a prototype of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) known as ProtoDUNE, which is designed to test and validate the technologies that will be applied to the construction of the DUNE experiment in the United States.

Recently, ProtoDUNE has entered a pivotal stage: the filling of one of its two particle detectors with liquid argon. Filling such a detector takes almost two months, as the chamber is gigantic – almost the size of a three-storey building. ProtoDUNE’s second detector will be filled in the autumn.

ProtoDUNE will use the proton beam from the Super Proton Synchrotron to test the detecting of charged particles. This argon-filled detector will be crucial to test the detector response for the next era of neutrino research. Liquid argon is used in DUNE due to its inert nature, which provides a clean environment for precise measurements. When a neutrino interacts with argon, it produces charged particles that ionise the atoms, allowing scientists to detect and study neutrino interactions. Additionally, liquid argon's density and high scintillation light yield enhance the detection of these interactions, making it an ideal medium for neutrino experiments.

Interestingly, the interior of the partially filled detector now appears green instead of its usual golden colour. This is because when the regular LED light is reflected inside the metal cryostat, the light travels through the liquid argon and the wavelength of the photons is shifted, producing a visible green effect.

The DUNE far detector, which will be roughly 20 times bigger than protoDUNE, is being built in the United States. DUNE will send a beam of neutrinos from Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) near Chicago, Illinois, over a distance of more than 1300 kilometres through the Earth to neutrino detectors located 1.5 km underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota.

Watch a short time-lapse video of protoDUNE being filled with liquid argon:

16–20 Apr | Knowledge Sharing | Balexert | Geneva International | EN & FR
CERN and International Geneva at Balexert / Le CERN et la Genève internationale à Balexert

18 Apr 19:30 | Knowledge Sharing | CERN Science Gateway | CERN70 | EN
CERN70 public event: The virtuous circle of knowledge and innovation(more CERN70 events)

19 Apr 11:00 | Knowledge Sharing | Council Chamber | Knowledge Transfer & Detector Seminar | EN
Latest development on spectroscopic X-ray imaging in medicine

24 Apr 18:00 | Knowledge Sharing | Le Globe de la science et de l'innovation | Événements publics | FR
Session de présentation : Progrès de l'étude de faisabilité FCC
Cet événement public est destiné aux résidents des communautés locales (l'inscription est nécessaire, le nombre de places étant limité). Nous invitons la communauté du CERN à suivre l'événement en ligne (sans inscription).

25 Apr 18:00 | Knowledge Sharing | Online | CERN Alumni | EN
News from the Lab – CERN Venture Connect

26 Apr 14:30 | Knowledge Sharing | Online | CERN Alumni | EN
Moving Out of Academia to Machine Learning

29–30 Apr | Knowledge Sharing | 4/3-006 | Gender in High Energy Theory | EN
GenHET meeting in String Theory

Registration now open

May & Jun | At CERN | CERN | Bike to Work | EN & FR
Bike to Work 2024

11 May 19:30 | At CERN | Main Auditorium | CERN MusiClub | EN
Eurovision Song Contest 2024 apèro, karaoke, games and live screening

15 May | Knowledge Sharing | Lausanne | Famelab | EN, FR or DE
Famelab Switzerland local heats, open to 18–35-year-olds

23 May 14:00 | Knowledge Sharing | Online | HR Learning and Development | EN
L&D Micro-talk 10 – Artificial Intelligence (AI) & The Future of Work

2–15 Jun | Accelerators | Sint-Michielsgestel (NL) | CERN Accelerator School | EN
Mechanical & Materials Engineering for Particle Accelerators and Detectors

10–12 Jun | Knowledge Sharing | Online | Sustainable HEP | EN
Sustainable HEP 2024 – 3rd Edition

11–13 Jun | Engineering | CERN | FDF | EN
1st FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) Developers' Forum meeting

12–25 Jun | Physics | Nakhon Pathom (TH) | Asia-Europe-Pacific School of High-Energy Physics (AEPSHEP) | EN
2024 Asia-Europe-Pacific School of High-Energy Physics

23 Jul–1 Aug | Knowledge Sharing | European Scientific Institute (FR) | I.FAST | EN
Accelerators for healthcare? 10-day innovation challenge

22 Sep–5 Oct | Accelerators | Santa Susanna (ES) | CERN Accelerator School | EN
Introduction to Accelerator Physics

This is a curated list of events relevant to the CERN community.
More events are available here: home.cern/events
Indico also shows ALL events happening today, this week and in a calendar view. 

If you would like your event to appear on an upcoming Bulletin events list, please contact bulletin-editors@cern.ch

As part of its continued commitment to making its science fully open, the CMS collaboration has just publicly released, in electronic format, the combination of CMS measurements that contributed to establishing the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012. This release coincides with the publication of the Combine software – the statistical analysis tool that CMS developed during the first run of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to search for the unique particle, which has since been adopted throughout the collaboration.

Physics measurements based on data from the LHC are usually reported as a central value and its corresponding uncertainty. For instance, soon after observing the Higgs boson in LHC proton–proton collision data, CMS measured its mass as 125.3 plus or minus 0.6 GeV (the proton mass being about 1 GeV). But this figure is just a brief summary of the measurement outcome, a bit like the title of a book.

In a measurement, the full information extracted from the data is encoded in a mathematical function, known as the likelihood function, that includes the measured value of a quantity as well as its dependence on external factors. In the case of a CMS measurement, these factors encompass the calibration of the CMS detector, the accuracy of the CMS detector simulation used to facilitate the measurement and other systematic effects.

A likelihood function of a measurement based on LHC data can be complex, as many aspects need to be pinned down to fully understand the messy collisions that take place at the LHC. For example, the likelihood function of the combination of CMS Higgs boson discovery measurements, which CMS just released in electronic format, has nearly 700 parameters for a fixed value of the Higgs boson mass. Among these, only one – the number of Higgs bosons found in the data – is the physics parameter of interest, while the rest model systematic uncertainties.

Each of these parameters corresponds to a dimension of a multi-dimensional abstract space, in which the likelihood function can be drawn. It is hard for humans to visualise a space with more than a few dimensions, let alone one with many. The new release of the likelihood function of the CMS Higgs boson discovery measurements – the first likelihood function to be made publicly available by the collaboration – allows researchers to get around this problem. With a publicly accessible likelihood function, physicists outside the CMS collaboration can now precisely factor in the CMS Higgs boson discovery measurements in their studies.

The release of this likelihood function, as well as that of the Combine software, which is used to model the likelihood and fit the data, marks a new milestone in CMS’s decade-long commitment to fully open science. It joins hundreds of open-access publications, the release of almost five petabytes of CMS data on the CERN open-data portal and the publication of its entire software framework on GitHub.

Find out more on the CMS website.

Every year, CERN spends some 500 MCHF on goods and services to build, maintain and operate its infrastructure to fulfil its scientific objectives. These purchases not only come at a financial cost, but also have an impact on the environment through the indirect emissions arising from their procurement. In 2023, CERN reported its procurement-related indirect emissions in the CERN Environment Report for the first time. These amounted to 98 030 tCO₂e and 104 974 tCO₂e in 2021 and 2022 respectively. To put this in context, this represents more than 90% of CERN’s total indirect emissions, the rest being attributed to personnel mobility, duty travel and catering, and just over 30% of CERN’s total emissions.

CERN strives to be a model for environmentally responsible research by taking action on its most impactful domains, including energy and water consumption and emissions, and setting objectives to minimise its environmental footprint. Adopting measures to positively influence procurement-related emissions is a priority for which a comprehensive strategy has been set out that will commit CERN, its suppliers and each and every one of us to making conscious decisions when purchasing goods or services.

Underpinning this strategy, the Environmentally Responsible Procurement Policy was approved by the Enlarged Directorate in June 2023. Anchored in the principle of embedding environmental responsibility where appropriate throughout all phases of the procurement process, the Policy commits the Organization to environmentally responsible procurement and to achieving sustainable results both internally and throughout its supply chains, integrating relevant best practices in its processes, measuring their impact, and communicating with and raising the awareness of all stakeholders.

In December 2023, the Enlarged Directorate approved the implementation of the Policy, effective from 1 January 2024. This entails a one-year kick-off phase to identify suitable areas for policy implementation, including a comprehensive awareness-raising programme with tailored training for technical officers and workshops for the departments focusing on their purchasing activities.

Additionally, pilot projects will help evaluate the integration of environmental criteria into market surveys and invitations to tender. Procurement officers will have access to a supplier sustainability due diligence tool and guidelines outlining best practices. These resources will equip them with the knowledge they need to assess suppliers based on their sustainability efforts.

Furthermore, a supplier engagement programme will be launched in order to foster discussions on sustainability within our supply chains, aiming to collaborate with and encourage suppliers to adopt sustainable practices.

Overall, this comprehensive implementation plan is designed to ensure a smooth transition towards policy compliance and create a sustainable framework for all stakeholders involved. Successful implementation will depend on all actors in CERN’s supply chains challenging our choices and decisions, from CERN’s IPT department, to CERN personnel involved in purchasing, to the suppliers themselves spanning our 23 Member and 11 Associate Member States, while continuing to strive for balanced returns.

According to Chris Hartley, Head of the IPT Department: “It is of great importance that we have established an Environmentally Responsible Procurement Policy for CERN. All CERN stakeholders want to see CERN continue to minimise its environmental impact. This Policy, underpinned by our progressive commitment to responsible sourcing, waste reduction and supplier engagement, will contribute to a more sustainable future.”

Due to the refurbishment of the Pension Fund offices (building 5, 5th floor), please note that, from 22 April to 31 August 2024, the Benefits service will be relocated to room 510/R-013 (next to the main building).

During this period, meetings will be by appointment only.

Thank you for your understanding.

Benefits Service
(pension-benefits@cern.ch or +41 22 767 88 11)

Almost the whole accelerator complex is now in “physics mode”, routinely delivering the various types of beam to the different physics facilities and experiments. Notably, the intensity ramp-up in the LHC is progressing remarkably well.

In particular, I am happy to start this report with the good news that, thanks to the excellent availability of the accelerator complex and the hard work of the LHC teams and experts, the LHC is now 12 days ahead of schedule, yielding a direct gain of integrated luminosity and thus physics and boding well for the 2024 run.

The first stable beams of 2024 in the LHC were initially scheduled for 8 April, but the teams working on the LHC beam commissioning managed to be ready earlier and declared first stable beams at 18.25 on 5 April, three days ahead of the official schedule. The first stable beams also mark the start of a period of intensity ramp-up interleaved with the completion of the final commissioning steps.

These final steps include the scrubbing of the LHC vacuum chamber to reduce the production of electron clouds that negatively impact the beam quality and put a strain on the cryogenics system. Usually, the scrubbing lasts two days, but this year an extra day was added since a new injection kicker and two TDIS (target dump injection systems) were installed during the YETS (the new TDIS replace the ones at Points 2 and 8 that suffered vacuum leaks in 2023). The scrubbing run was nevertheless completed in only 36 hours, resulting in another gain in the schedule.

The LHC availability during the recent intensity ramp-up was 85%, including stable beams for about 35% of the time, and the experts very efficiently signed off the checklists at each intensity step. This is why we are now about 12 days ahead of schedule, colliding beams of 1200 bunches and already producing a meaningful level of luminosity for physics. The next step is 1800 bunches, which, if all goes well, might be achieved before the end of this week.

Meanwhile, the injectors are providing the experiment facilities with beams for physics. The PS was the first to routinely provide beams for physics to the East Area, on 22 March, and n_TOF followed suit on 25 March. ISOLDE, located behind the PS Booster, started physics on 8 April. The SPS fixed-target physics in the North Area started on 10 April. On 15 April, the AWAKE facility located behind the SPS started the first of five two-week proton runs scheduled for 2024. The next in line is the Antimatter factory: the AD and ELENA decelerators should start providing the experiments with antiprotons for physics on 22 April.

The 2024 run has been extended by four weeks, until 25 November, for the LHC, and by five weeks, until 2 December, for the injectors. The YETS will start later this year, which will allow more physics to be done in 2024.

The CERN Ombud’s Office was established in 2010 to provide the entire CERN community with support in resolving conflicts informally, in a consensual and impartial manner. Since then, several Ombuds have held the position, which is now firmly anchored at the Laboratory. On 1 May, Marie-Luce Falipou, the fifth CERN Ombud, will take up her duties. She takes over from Laure Esteveny, who has been in the role since April 2021 and is taking early retirement.

As they prepared for the handover, Laure and Marie-Luce agreed to answer the Bulletin team’s questions.

The Bulletin: Laure, what drove you to become Ombud?

Laure: I began my career as Ombud in 2021, after 35 years working in different departments of the Organization. I was attracted by the human side of the role, and I haven’t been disappointed. I’m extremely happy to have been able to serve out my career as CERN Ombud. It’s very rewarding to help people to overcome a conflict.

The Bulletin: What do you need to succeed in this role?

Laure: When they take up their duties, all new CERN Ombuds follow the training courses run by the International Ombuds Association (IAO) and also receive training in mediation. This is clearly essential, but the skills I acquired throughout my career at CERN have also been invaluable. You need to have good analytical skills and be very thorough to succeed in this role.

Pierre Gildemyn, my predecessor, also supported me a lot. He was always available to answer my questions and shared his own experience as Ombud with me. I, in turn, am available for Marie-Luce; I will be delighted to help her. I would also urge her to turn to the IAO for support and to all the professional ombud networks, especially that of the United Nations and Related International Organizations (UNARIO) – ombuds are very good at supporting each other.

The Bulletin: Have you encountered any difficulties?

Laure: The role of Ombud is very rewarding on the human level. If I had to name a difficulty, I would say that the isolation that inevitably comes with the role is not always easy to cope with. In addition, by definition, the Ombud is only exposed to problematic situations in which people are suffering – to the “Dark Side of the Force” – which can sometimes be a heavy burden.

The Bulletin: Marie-Luce, what brought you to this role?

Marie-Luce: I’ve known Pierre and Laure for a long time, and I’ve seen them thrive in the role of Ombud, for which they developed a real passion. It’s a privilege to be the next to take on this role.

I’ve spent my whole career at CERN, 35 years now, in the Human Resources department. I’ve held various positions, notably HRA (human resources adviser) for 13 years, so I’m very familiar with the workplace culture. I’ve also been trained in active listening – skills that will certainly be very useful in my new position. For me, becoming Ombud is really a natural evolution, even if the role is of course unique.

The Bulletin: You take up your duties on 1 May, but you don’t become Ombud overnight, I imagine?

Marie-Luce: Indeed, I’ll take the necessary time to prepare myself for this new role, which is really something out of the ordinary and something with which I need to familiarise myself. I’m aware of the importance and the impact that the Ombud can have, and I’m humbled and grateful to accept this responsibility.

Le Bulletin: As the new Ombud, what message would you like to send to the CERN community?

Marie-Luce: I want people to know that the Ombud’s office is a safe, calm place where they will be listened to in confidence and understood. The Ombud is there to serve all members of the CERN community, regardless of their role in the Organization. Questions, problems and conflicts are part and parcel of life, including in the workplace. Finding the best way to handle them can make a big difference, and that’s where the Ombud can help.

The Bulletin: Any final words?

Marie-Luce: I’d like to say a big thank you to Laure for sharing her experience with me and for offering me her support; it’s a precious resource to have someone experienced to turn to.

Laure: Thank you to all those who placed their trust in me, and I wish Marie-Luce all the best!

The Bulletin: A big thank you to you both!

_____

The Ombud is available from Monday to Friday in office B500/1-004 on the Meyrin site. To make an appointment, in person or online, contact the Ombud at ombuds@cern.ch.

More information can be found on the Ombud’s website: https://ombuds.web.cern.ch

On 9 April 2024, a ceremony at CERN marked the donation of computing equipment to the Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa. The ceremony was attended by Mr. Curtis Singo, Political and Economic Counsellor at the South Africa Embassy in Bern, Joachim Mnich, CERN’s director for Research and Computing, and Bob Jones, deputy head of CERN’s IT department.

On this occasion, 21 servers and 4 network switches were sent to the Tshwane University of Technology, where the equipment will be used to support academic and research projects.

CERN regularly donates computing equipment that no longer meets its highly specific requirements but is still more than adequate for less demanding environments. To date, more than 2500 servers and 150 network switches have been donated by CERN to countries and international organisations, namely Algeria, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Palestine, Pakistan, the Philippines, Senegal, Serbia, Jordan, Lebanon and now South Africa.

If you are a publicly funded research organisation, you can request computing equipment from CERN.

CERN strives for excellence in safety matters, with a commitment to continuous improvement in the field. Emergency preparedness is a priority for the Organization as it is a key element in its aim to protect both people participating in its activities and its installations. In this context, regular evacuation exercises of all accelerator and experimental areas are a regulatory requirement and part of the CERN-wide safety objectives.

On a warm, sunny day in February 2024, 48 people were going about their daily work in the CMS cavern, unaware that an evacuation exercise, which had been carefully planned for several months, was about to take place. Such exercises are crucial for facility users and rescue teams to gain familiarity with emergency procedures in various contexts and settings. When the alarm sounded, all 48 people reacted calmly, reaching the assembly point quickly and safely. It was a pleasing result for CMS and, apart from the important lessons learned from the exercise, additional data was gathered to improve not only evacuation procedures but also the design of installations in order to make emergency plans even more effective.

This exercise was part of a pilot collaboration between CMS Safety, the HSE Fire Safety Engineering (FSE) team and the Fire Safety Engineering division of Lund University in Sweden, which took this opportunity to maximise the usefulness of the evacuation to study human behaviour in emergency situations.

Comprising reports by undercover observers, questionnaires and footage from security cameras (used in full compliance with Operational Circular No. 11 to ensure anonymity), the data collected provides many useful insights into evacuation dynamics, occupant characteristics and perceptions of safety procedures.

This information is essential for the design of and emergency planning for subterranean experimental areas. As opposed to the design of buildings located above ground, which follows national safety standards, the design of underground areas relies extensively on computer modelling. Using various parameters, it is possible to simulate human behaviours in the event of an emergency to predict the effectiveness of a real-life evacuation.

In this pilot study, the Lund and FSE teams will use the CMS evacuation data to identify unique human behaviours observed in emergencies in complex underground environments. This will expand the current knowledge base and help build a database of specific input parameters to fine-tune and/or validate existing evacuation models.

Ultimately, this methodology will be instrumental not only to improve CERN’s emergency response in the caverns, but also to influence the safety design across current and future complex facilities, at CERN and beyond.

In the logical sequence from collisions to a scientific breakthrough, computing comes last. But definitely not least. At CERN, computing is a distributed effort. Most of the activities that are necessary for research work to happen – such as data storage, data sharing, data access and security, data architecture – are directly designed and managed within the CERN IT department. However, huge expertise in computing is also to be found in the scientific collaborations. Interactions between experts, regardless of which department or collaboration they come from, are continuous, and successful projects are often created and managed by mixed teams.

A recent example is the ALICE O2 project. ALICE’s graphics processing unit (GPU)-based online data processing has the highest data recording requirement of all experiments. To address this challenge, experts from the IT department and members of the ALICE collaboration jointly developed a wholly novel approach whereby data from ALICE is sent directly to the CERN Data Centre in Meyrin, five kilometres away, through high-speed fibre-optic links. The O2 storage system is designed to be cost-efficient and highly redundant to keep data accessible even in the event of unexpected disruptions or hardware failures. The large-scale storage solution demonstrated its effectiveness last autumn, during the LHC ion run, and remains the largest disk storage system ever established in the Data Centre.

The Organization’s data management strategy relies on the high standards of the two CERN Data Centres – one in Meyrin and the second, recently inaugurated, in Prévessin – and goes much beyond the CERN campus. Thanks to its network of around 160 centres distributed across 40 countries, the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) makes the data deluge produced by the experiments available to the wide community of scientists distributed in all the collaborating institutes around the world. This would not be possible without the thousands of innovative solutions that the community has developed over the years.    

Like for the Laboratory’s other activities, collaboration is also key for the IT department. It is here that the innovative public–private partnership of CERN openlab was born, over 20 years ago. Its new phase, which kicked off just a couple of weeks ago, is designed to attract new collaborations and to keep CERN openlab at the forefront of new technologies, in order to anticipate the needs of the research field and meet future challenges, including data storage at the exascale, development of innovative algorithms based on artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

We strive constantly for innovation. Here, the best talents that the Organization attracts work on technologies that will shape the future of computing, not only for science but also for society. The Quantum Technology Initiative, founded in 2018 to establish a comprehensive R&D programme in the field of quantum technologies, has evolved to also encompass a societal arm, the newly established Open Quantum Institute. The Institute will foster pioneering technological solutions that will benefit society while helping to avoid the creation of a new technological gap in our world.

We believe that the only way to shape the future is to do it in a sustainable and inclusive way. Access to science and technology must remain open to all, the cutting-edge tools that we develop must be shared with society, and we have to keep a keen eye on their environmental impact. To fulfil our challenging mission and to carry out our impactful projects, we will keep investing in attracting the best talents who believe in and share our objectives.

The Fondation pour Genève will be presenting its 30th prize to Fabiola Gianotti, CERN Director-General, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to Geneva’s international reputation.

“I am extremely honoured to receive the Fondation pour Genève Prize. The development of science and technology, openness, collaboration across borders and the education of young people are fundamental values at CERN, which are also deeply rooted in international Geneva. The fact that these values, which are so dear to me, are being recognised is a particularly touching moment for me,” declared Fabiola Gianotti.

The award ceremony is open to everyone and will take place on Monday 13 May 2024 at 6.30 pm at the Victoria Hall in Geneva. To register, click here.

More information on the Fondation pour Genève website.

The LHC Early Career Mentoring Committee and CERN’s Women in Technology group have teamed up to launch a new and unique mentoring programme: Mentoring@CERN.

The pilot phase of this initiative, which aims to promote professional development and support within the CERN community, is set to commence on 15 April.

Who can participate?

If you're associated with CERN through a contract, whether as staff, fellow, student, user, PART, or external contractor, you're eligible to join. You don't have to work for the LHC experiments or be a woman to take part.

There are no age or career level restrictions, ensuring that anyone can apply to be a mentor or mentee. We carefully pair mentors and mentees on a case-by-case basis with personalised matches.

Timeline for 2024

Registration for the pilot round opens on Monday 15 April 2024 and closes on Wednesday 15 May. By the end of May, you'll receive news about your match.

A kick-off meeting will take place in June, where we will share more information about mentoring best practices and helpful tools to jumpstart your mentorship experience.

How to participate?

Applying here will take less than 5 minutes.

Simply fill out the registration forms for mentors and/or mentees and attach your CV and a short cover letter. Your application will be carefully reviewed to find the perfect match for you.

Behind the scenes

The WIT mentoring programme, established in 2018, focused on pairing mentors and mentees with a special emphasis on female mentees. Meanwhile, the LHC Early Career Mentoring Programme, launched in 2020, connected mentors and mentees working on various LHC experiments.

Inspired by our shared vision, we are combining forces to merge the programmes, uniting our strengths to provide mentorship opportunities to the whole CERN community.

Information session

Whether you want to share your expertise or seek guidance to navigate your career path, we hope Mentoring@CERN will offer a unique experience.

If you are not sure what the programme can provide or if have questions you would like to ask, we invite you to attend our information session on 25 April at 12:30 CET: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1403801/

The SHiP (Search for Hidden Particles) collaboration was in high spirits at its annual meeting this week. Its project to develop a large detector and target to be installed in one of the underground caverns of the accelerator complex has been accepted by the CERN Research Board. Thus, SHiP plans to sail to explore the hidden sector in 2031. Scientists hope to capture particles that interact very feebly with ordinary matter – so feebly, in fact, that they have not yet been detected.

This group of hypothetical particles includes dark photons, axions and axion-like particles, heavy neutral leptons and others. These particles, which could be among the dark matter, particles, are predicted by several theoretical models that extend beyond the Standard Model, the current theory describing elementary particles and the forces that unite them.

Although very solid, the Standard Model does not explain certain phenomena. The particles predicted by the Model – in other words, the ordinary matter that we know – account for just 5% of the Universe. The rest is thought to be unknown matter and energy, which scientists refer to as dark matter and dark energy. Their effects can be observed in the Universe, but their nature is a mystery that a growing number of experiments are trying to uncover.

This is where SHiP comes in. The idea is simple: the more particles that are produced, the greater the chances of finding feebly interacting particles. A high-intensity proton beam from the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) accelerator will be repeatedly sent to a target, a large metal block, producing a vast number of particles. Among them, scientists hope to find particles from the hidden sector. Thanks to the very high beam intensity, SHiP will be more sensitive than the existing experiments.

Another special feature of SHiP is that its detectors will be placed several tens of metres away from the target in order to detect relatively long-lived particles and eliminate “background noise”, in other words, particles such as muons that could interfere with the detection of long-lived particles. The experiment is equipped with a magnet system to divert the flow of muons and a large 50 m-long chamber in which the particles of interest can decay into known particles.

The experiment therefore complements the large LHC experiments, whose detectors surround the collision point and are unable to study the feebly interacting particles that travel several tens of metres before transforming. Theoretical models predict that the lower their mass and the weaker their coupling (the intensity of the interaction), the longer the lifetime of these particles. SHiP will therefore be sensitive to particles with relatively low masses.

In their journey through the detector, these particles could either disintegrate into known particles or collide with an atom of ordinary matter, which would also produce particles. The SHiP detectors have been designed to detect their signals.

Beyond the hypothetical dark-matter particles, SHiP will also study neutrinos which, despite being known particles of the Standard Model, are difficult to intercept and still hold many mysteries.

The target and the experiment will be installed in an existing underground cavern at CERN and supplied by a beam line from the SPS, CERN’s second largest accelerator, which supplies several experiments and pre-accelerates particles for the LHC.

The target is a complex device that is more like a beam dump than a conventional fixed target. Under study for several years, it is a 1.5-metre-thick block made of several different metals in order to produce the specific particles required by SHiP and fitted with a cooling and shielding system.

Earth Observation (EO) and particle physics research have more in common than you might think. In both environments, whether capturing fleeting particle collisions or detecting transient traces of ocean plastics, rapid and accurate data analysis is paramount.

On this Earth Day, as we reflect on our responsibility to reduce plastics for the benefit of our society and all life on our planet, we are excited to present a new EU project, Edge SpAIce. It applies CERN’s cutting-edge AI technology to monitor the Earth’s ecosystems from space in order to detect and track plastic pollution in our oceans.

“In particle physics, the trigger system plays a critical role by swiftly determining which data from the particle detector should be retained, given that only a small fraction of the 40 million collision snapshots taken each second can be recorded. As the data influx at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has grown significantly over the years, physicists and computer scientists are continually innovating to upgrade this process - and this is where AI technology comes in,” says Sioni Summers, a CERN physicist working on the CMS experiment at the LHC, who is supervising this work.

Edge SpAIce is a collaborative endeavour involving CERN, EnduroSat (BG) and NTU Athens (GR) and coordinated by AGENIUM Space. Its aim is to develop a specially designed on-board system for satellites that will make it possible to acquire and process high-resolution pictures using a DNN (Deep Neural Network). The system will use the “edge AI” approach, in which data is processed in near real-time directly on the satellite, mirroring the efficient filtering of LHC data in particle detectors at CERN. This means that it is not necessary to transmit all of the captured data back to Earth but only the relevant information - in this case, the presence of marine plastic litter. The system will also be deployed on FPGA hardware developed in Europe, which will improve competitiveness. This could open the door for a whole new market for EO services and applications.

As modern life increasingly relies on technology, the solution that the project offers adeptly addresses the growing demand for data processing and the rapid expansion of EO satellites. By eliminating the need for heavy processing in Earth-based data centres, it not only reduces the carbon footprint but also helps to relieve the burden on these facilities. The innovative approach holds potential for broader applications in domains such as agriculture, urban planning, disaster relief and climate change. Additionally, this technology will provide environmental scientists and policymakers with invaluable data for targeted clean-up operations. It will advance our understanding of plastic pollution patterns, thereby enhancing our capacity to address environmental challenges effectively.

“AGENIUM Space is thrilled to have found synergies with CERN in developing innovative solutions for our planet’s future,” said Dr Andis Dembovskis, a business development executive with AGENIUM Space.

The Edge SpAIce project exemplifies how creative thinking by partners across diverse fields can lead to a collaborative knowledge transfer project that tackles major societal challenges. To discover how other CERN knowledge transfer and innovation projects are making a positive impact on the environment, please visit: https://kt.cern/environment