The second edition of the open discussion between CERN staff and the Directorate took place on 19 March. For those who were unable to follow the event, the recording is available here.

Below is a list of the fifteen questions that received the most votes, the first three of which were dealt with during the session.

The topics that you consider important and that could not be discussed during the session will be addressed by internal communication in the coming months. 

There were a total of 1479 voters. Find below the three questions that received the most votes: 

Here are the following twelve questions in terms of number of votes: 

Feel free to give us your opinion on the session by email so the Directorate can take this onboard for the future. 

The express line of the on-demand transport services in the Pays de Gex will include an additional stop in front of the Porte de France from Monday, 1 April 2019.

This line, operating between Léaz and CERN’s Meyrin site, is available by reservation since September 2018.

You can check the the timetable and map above.
More information on the Pays de Gex Agglo website.

You are reminded that the Organization levies an internal tax on the financial and family benefits it pays to the members of the personnel (see Chapter V, Section 2 of the Staff Rules and Regulations) and that the members of the personnel are exempt from federal, cantonal and communal taxation on salaries and emoluments paid by CERN.

I - Annual internal taxation certificate for 2018

The annual certificate of internal taxation for 2018, issued by the Finance and Administrative processes Department, is available since 11 February 2019. It is intended exclusively for the tax authorities.

1. If you are currently a member of the CERN personnel you will receive an e-mail containing a link to your annual certificate, which you can print out if necessary. 
2. If you are no longer a member of the CERN personnel or are unable to access your annual certificate as indicated above, you will find information explaining how to obtain one here: http://admin-eguide.web.cern.ch/en/procedure/ annual-internal-taxation-certificate

In case of difficulty in obtaining your annual certificate, send an e-mail explaining the problem to service-desk@cern.ch.

II - 2018 income tax declaration forms issued by the Swiss cantonal tax administrations

The 2018 income tax declaration form should be completed in accordance with the general indications available at this address: http://admin-eguide.web.cern.ch/en/procedure/income-tax-declaration-switzerland 

IF YOU HAVE ANY SPECIFIC QUESTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR TAX OFFICE DIRECTLY

This information does not concern CERN pensioners, as they are no longer members of the CERN personnel and are therefore subject to the standard national legal provisions relating to taxation.

HR Department
Contact: HR-Internal-tax@cern.ch

More than 40 polish entrepreneurs will visit CERN on 2-4 April 2019 as part of Poland@CERN 2019. They represent 20 companies and institutes that already are or can become CERN suppliers.

Participants represent branches such as: electronic, ventilation, refrigeration, cryogenics as well as information and communication technologies. Their visit will be a good opportunity to talk about collaboration between the Polish business environment and CERN.

B2B meetings will be held in English.

_____

You can find more details and agenda of Poland@CERN 2019 at: https://indico.cern.ch/event/805646/

Applications are now open for the 42^ndCERN School of Computing. The CSC 2019 will take place on September 15-28 in the beautiful city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The School is organized in collaboration with Babeș-Bolyai University (UBB) together with Politehnica University of Bucharest (UPB).

The CSC is not a conference but a true summer university. The two-week programme consists of more than 50 hours of lectures and hands-on exercises, covering three main themes: physics computing, software engineering, and data technologies. As with every CSC, the programme is audited by the hosting universities, and students that pass the final optional exam will receive a diploma from CSC, as well as ECTS points from UBB + UPB.

However, it's not all study; the social and sport programme is also a vital part of the School. We will have ample opportunities to explore and experience some of Romania's great cultural, historical and natural attractions, and profit from Cluj-Napoca’s location in heart of the Transylvania region.

The CSC 2019 is aimed at postgraduate engineers and scientists, working at CERN or at other research institutes, with experience in particle physics, in computing or in related fields. We welcome applications from all nationalities, and encourage all qualified persons to apply. Limited financial support may be available.

Apply now here. The deadline is May 10 – places are limited! 

You are encouraged to attend the conference on security at CERN, which has been postponed to: 

Tuesday 26 March from 3.00 pm to 4.00 pm
CERN Main Auditorium (500-1-001)
The talk will be given by Lluis Miralles, Head of SMB Department

CERN has established and implemented its security strategy to ensure the protection and safety of the personnel, the public, infrastructure and facilities against malicious acts. This is achieved through a combination of human, technical and organisational means designed to avert or reduce the risk of occurrence of such an act on the CERN premises.

CERN’s specific activities and geographical environment, its status as an international organisation and the worldwide security situation make the implementation of a security strategy very particular. In the talk, details on the practical deployment of the strategy and its results are presented.

The conference will be webcast and recorded.

See also the Indico page

At the 66th Rencontres de Moriond conference, which is taking place in La Thuile, Italy, physicists working at CERN are presenting their most recent results. Since the start of the conference on 16 March, a wide range of topics from measurements of the Higgs boson and Standard Model processes to searches for rare and exotic phenomena have been presented.

The Standard Model of particle physics is a successful theory that describes how elementary particles and forces govern the properties of the Universe, but it is incomplete as it cannot explain certain phenomena, such as gravity, dark matter and dark energy. For this reason, physicists welcome any measurement that shows discrepancies with the Standard Model, as these give hints of new particles and new forces – of new physics, in other words. At the conference, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations have presented new results based on up to 140fb^–1 of proton-proton collision data collected during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) from 2015 to 2018. Many of these analyses benefited from novel machine-learning techniques used to extract data from background processes.

Since the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, ATLAS and CMS physicists have made significant progress in understanding its properties, how it is formed and how it interacts with other known particles. Thanks to the large quantity of Higgs bosons produced in the collisions of Run 2, the collaborations were able to measure most of the Higgs boson’s main production and decay modes with a statistical significance far exceeding five standard deviations. In addition, many searches for new, additional Higgs bosons have been presented. From a combination of all Higgs boson measurements, ATLAS obtained new constraints on the Higgs self-coupling. CMS has presented updated results on the Higgs decay to two Z bosons and has also derived new information on the strength of the interaction between Higgs bosons and top quarks. This interaction is measured in two ways, using top quark pairs and using a rare process in which four top quarks are produced. The probability of four top quarks being produced at the LHC is about a factor of ten less likely than the production of Higgs bosons together with two top quarks, and about a factor of ten thousand less likely than the production of just a top quark pair.

The ATLAS collaboration has also reported first evidence for the simultaneous production of three W or Z bosons, which are the mediator particles of the weak force. Tri-boson production is a rare process predicted by the Standard Model, and is sensitive to possible contributions from yet unknown particles or forces. The very large new dataset has also been used by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations to expand the searches for new particles beyond the Standard Model at the energy available at the LHC. One of the possible theories is supersymmetry, an extension of the Standard Model, which features a symmetry between matter and force and introduces many new particles, including possible candidates for dark matter. These hypothetical particles have not been detected in experiments so far, and the collaborations have set stronger lower limits on the possible range of masses that they could have.

The CMS collaboration has placed new limits on the parameters of new physics theories that describe hypothetical slowly moving heavy particles. These are detected by measuring how fast particles travel through the detector: while the regular particles propagate at speeds close to that of light, straight from the proton collisions, these heavy particles are expected to move measurably slower before decaying into a shower of other particles, creating a “delayed jet”. CMS has also presented first evidence for another rare process, the production of two W bosons in not one but two simultaneous interactions between the constituents of the colliding protons.

In addition, ATLAS and CMS have presented new studies on the search for hypothetical Z′ (Z-prime) bosons. The existence of such neutral heavy particles is predicted by certain Grand Unified theories that could provide an elegant extension of the Standard Model. Although no significant signs of Z′ particles have been observed thus far, the results provide constraints on their production rate.

The LHCb collaboration has presented several new measurements concerning particles containing beauty or charm quarks. Certain properties of these particles can be affected by the existence of new particles beyond the Standard Model. This allows LHCb to search for signs of new physics via a complementary, indirect route. One much anticipated result, shown for the first time at the conference, is a measurement using data taken from 2011 to 2016 of the ratio of two related rare decays of a B⁺ particle. These decays are predicted in the Standard Model to occur at the same rate to within 1%; the data collected are consistent with this prediction but favour a lower value. This follows a pattern of intriguing hints in other, similar decay processes; while none of these results are significant enough to constitute evidence of new physics on their own, they have captured the interest of physicists and will be investigated further with the full LHCb data set. LHCb also presented the first observation of matter–antimatter asymmetry known as CP violation in charm particle decays, as reported in a dedicated press release last week.

Finally, using the results of lead-ion collisions taken in 2018, the ATLAS collaboration has been able to clearly observe a very rare phenomenon in which two photons – particles of light – interact, producing another pair of photons, with a significance of over 8 standard deviations. This process was among the earliest predictions of quantum electrodynamics (QED), the quantum theory of electromagnetism, and is forbidden by Maxwell's classical theory of electrodynamics.

Additional information:

ATLAS news
CMS news
LHCb news

CERN is known for its collider facilities, yet fixed-target experiments also have a long history at the Laboratory, forming essential building blocks in the physics landscape. Notable among them are experiments fed by the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) accelerator, which has provided a steady stream of high-energy proton beams to the North Area at CERN’s Prévessin site. As the North Area marks 40 years since the publication of its first physics, a symposium at CERN on 3 April, broadcast via webcast, celebrates this hub of experiments, which have been exploring many fundamental questions and will continue to enrich the programme of the Laboratory.

In fixed-target experiments, a particle beam collides with a stationary target, in most cases producing secondary particles for specific studies. High-energy machines such as the SPS, which produces proton beams with a momentum of up to 450 GeV/c, give the secondary products a large forward boost, providing intense sources of secondary and tertiary particles such as electrons, muons and hadrons. Compared to collider experiments, fixed-target experiments tend to be more specialised and focus on precision measurements that demand very high statistics, such as those involving ultra-rare decays.

The North Area fixed-target experiments range from the pioneering NA1, which measured the photoproduction of vector and scalar bosons until 1992, to today’s NA64, which studies the dark sector.Among the key results from the NA experiments are first studies of the quark–gluon plasma, the first evidence of direct charge-parity (CP) violation and a detailed understanding of how nucleon spin arises from quarks and gluons. The first muons in CERN’s North Area were reported at the start of the commissioning run in March 1978, and the first physics publication – a measurement of the production rate of muon pairs by quark–antiquark annihilation – was published in 1979 by the NA3 experiment. 

Today, the North Area’s physics programme is as vibrant as ever,and this looks set to remain true, with many proposals for new experiments appearing on the horizon, ranging from the study of very rare decays and light dark matter to the study of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) with hadron and heavy-ion beams. There is even a study under way to possibly extend the North Area with an additional very-high-intensity proton beam serving a so-called beam dump facility. Read more about the physics research in the North Area in this CERN Courier feature, from which this text was extracted.

Follow the webcast of the event here. 

Last week, physicists from all over the world gathered in La Thuile, Italy, for the second week of the Rencontres de Moriond conference. This second week of the annual meeting features new and recent findings in all things related to quantum chromodynamics (QCD) – the theory of the strong force that combines quarks into composite particles called hadrons – and to high-energy particle interactions. This year, results from the main experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb) included new pentaquarks, new charmed beauty particles, a more precise measurement of matter–antimatter asymmetry in strange beauty particles, and new results from heavy-ion collisions.

Discovery of new pentaquarks

The LHCb collaboration announced the discovery of new five-quark hadrons, or “pentaquarks”. Quarks normally aggregate into groups of twos and threes, but in recent years the LHCb team has confirmed the existence of exotic tetraquarks and pentaquarks, which are also predicted by QCD. In a 2015 study, the LHCb researchers analysed data from the decay of the three-quark particle Λ_b into a J/ψ particle, a proton and a charged kaon and were able to see two new pentaquarks (dubbed P_c(4450)⁺ and P_c(4380)⁺) in intermediate decay states. After analysing a sample of nine times more Λ_b decays than in the 2015 study, the LHCb team has now discovered a new pentaquark, P_c(4312)⁺ as well as a two-peak pattern in the data that shows that the previously observed  P_c(4450)⁺ structure is in fact two particles.

Charmed beauty particles in focus

Notwithstanding significant progress over the past two decades, researchers’ understanding of the QCD processes that make up hadrons is incomplete. One way to try and understand them is through the study of the little-known charmed beauty (B_c) particle family, which consists of hadrons made up of a beauty quark and a charm antiquark (or vice-versa). In 2014, using data from the LHC’s first proton–proton collision run, the ATLAS collaboration reported the observation of a B_c particle called B_c(2S). A very recent analysis by the CMS collaboration of the full LHC sample from the second run, published today in Physical Review Letters and presented at the meeting, has unambiguously observed a two-peak feature in this dataset that corresponds to B_c(2S) and to another B_c particle called B_c*(2S). Meanwhile, the LHCb team, which in 2017 reported no evidence for B_c(2S) in its 2012 data, has now analysed the full 2011–2018 data sample and has also observed the B_c(2S) and B_c*(2S), lending support to the CMS result.

Matter–antimatter asymmetry in strange beauty particles

The meeting’s second week also saw the announcement of a new result concerning the amount of the matter–antimatter asymmetry known as CP violation in the system of strange beauty (B_s) particles, which are made of a bottom quark and a strange quark. B_s mesons have the special feature that they oscillate rapidly into their antiparticle and back, and these oscillations can lead to CP violation when the B_s decays into combinations of particles such as a J/ψ and a ϕ. The amount of CP violation predicted by the Standard Model and observed so far in experiments is too small to account for the observed imbalance between matter and antimatter in the universe, prompting scientists to search for additional, as-yet-unknown sources of CP violation and to measure the extent of the violation from known sources more precisely. Following hot on the heels of two independent measurements of the asymmetry in the B_s system reported by ATLAS and LHCb during the meeting’s first week, a new result that combined the two measurements was reported during the second week. The combined result is the most precise measurement yet of the asymmetry in the B_s system and is consistent with the small value precisely predicted by the Standard Model.

Heavy-ion progress

The ALICE collaboration specialises in collisions between heavy ions such as lead nuclei, which can recreate the quark–gluon plasma (QGP) that is believed to have occurred shortly after the Big Bang. ALICE highlighted its observation that three-quark particles (baryons) containing charm quarks (Λ_c) are produced more often in proton–proton collisions than in electron­–positron collisions. It also showed that its first measurements of such charmed baryons in lead–lead collisions suggest an even higher production rate in these collisions, similar to what has been observed for strange-quark baryons. These observations indicate that the presence of quarks in the colliding beams affects the hadron production rate, shedding new light on the QCD processes that form baryons. The collaboration also presented the first measurement of the triangle-shaped flow of J/psi particles, which contain heavy quarks, in lead–lead collisions. This measurement shows that even heavy quarks are affected by the quarks and gluons in the QGP and retain some memory of the collisions’ initial geometry. Finally, ALICE also presented measurements of particle jets in lead–lead collisions that probe the QGP at different length scales.

For other results, check out the conference page.

The 2019 School will take place from 4 to 17 September 2019 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

There will be about 33 lectures, each lasting about 90 minutes including time for questions. These will be complemented by parallel group discussion sessions most afternoons.

The European School is targeted particularly at students in experimental HEP who are in the final years of work towards their PhDs.

Find out more here. 

During Equality Week (Semaine de l’égalité) in Geneva, which this year was dedicated to gender issues around the digital world, CERN volunteers organised a day packed with games and workshops to spark girls’ interest in computer science. 

On Saturday, 9 March, members of CERN Women In Technology (WIT), CERN Micro Club, and the NGO RightsTech Women, in collaboration with Hepia, Onl’fait and Informasciences, prepared a lot of fun activities for girls aged six to eighteen. 

Participants above ten years old were invited to programme Poppy Ergo Jr, a robot devised for educational purposes that can be instructed to move, dance, draw and even work as a little catapult. The younger participants were introduced to the logic of coding via fun games, and encouraged to explore computers’ hidden components. The event took place at the Hepia Engineering School and involved 20 volunteers from CERN and RightsTech Women, for the benefit of more than 100 children and teenagers. 

Despite the increase in demand for computer experts, the number of womenchoosing a Bachelor’s degree in computer science has been falling since the 1980s in several countries. To help reverse this trend, CERN also took an active role in the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on 11 February 2019 and will host the next International Girls in ICT Day on 25 April 2019. 

The Pension Fund has launched a new website that gives members and beneficiaries access to user-friendly information on the Fund and its benefits, as well as providing important information about governance and investments.

Following feedback from an online survey of the members and beneficiaries, which was conducted in February 2018, the website now includes more detailed explanation of benefits, as well as information on how to inform the Fund of any changes in family situation. The site structure has been simplified to provide easy access to information and gives visitors the opportunity to choose different ways of navigating around the site. There is also a set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) providing a further source of information.

We hope you enjoy the new online experience.

CERN Pension Fund

CERN puts its expertise at the service of other accelerators around the world. A few weeks ago, an unusually large package passed through CERN's gates: a set of two magnets weighing a total of 27 tonnes crossed the site to Building 180.

These magnets are the first to be tested as part of an agreement between CERN and GSI Darmstadt. About sixty will follow over the next five years. They are intended for the German laboratory's new particle separator (Super-FRS), a key component of the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) for the study of exotic nuclei.

GSI will use CERN's expertise to validate these magnets. Three test benches, with a cryogenics system, have been specially set up. The new infrastructure is unconventional in that it must accommodate 7-metre-long magnets, weighing up to 60 tonnes and with large apertures, measuring up to 380 mm in diameter (for comparison, the LHC dipole magnets have an aperture of 56 mm in diameter). CERN and GSI have prepared the test facility and test devices and are working together on the commissioning. CERN will continue to provide technical support until the completion of the testing campaign.

The magnets that will pass through CERN will be either multiplets (sets of several magnets) or dipoles. "We will validate a total of 32 multiplets and 24 dipoles", says Lisette Van Den Boogaard, project manager at CERN. 

The multiplet arrangement makes the tests more complex. "Each magnet of the multiplet must first be tested alone, then the magnets must be tested together to evaluate their interactions”, say Hans Müller, superconducting magnets manager at GSI, and Kei Sugita, testing project manager at GSI.

During the next 18 months, two multiplets and one dipole will be delivered and tested at CERN. The magnets will then arrive at the rate of one every two to three weeks until 2023. The Super-FRS accelerator should be operational by 2025. 

"The test facility will subsequently be suitable for other tests and will serve the vast community of physicists,” concludes Lisette Van Den Boogaard.

CERN personnel are cordially invited to a presentation on the "Science Gateway" project,

given by CERN DG Fabiola Gianotti and architect Renzo Piano: 

8 April at 2.00 p.m.

Main Auditorium

Dear Colleagues,

In my presentation to personnel in January, I briefly described the Science Gateway project, a new facility for scientific education and outreach. It will be housed in an iconic new building on the Meyrin site, funded entirely through private donations and designed by architect Renzo Piano. Construction is scheduled to begin next year and be complete by 2022.

Science Gateway will be a hub for scientific education and culture in line with CERN's mission to share knowledge and technology with society, and to inspire young generations with the beauty of science. With a mission to engage audiences of all ages, it will include inspirational exhibition spaces, laboratories for hands-on scientific experiments for children and students from primary to high-school level, as well as a large amphitheatre to host scientific events for experts and many other audiences.

The time has now come to announce this new initiative to the public. On 8 April in the morning, CERN will hold a press conference to launch the project, in the presence of the main architect and donors. I would like to invite you to a presentation of the Science Gateway on 8 April at 14:00 in the Main Auditorium, see the INDICO page. Architect Renzo Piano will be with me to show the design of the building and its facilities.

I look forward to seeing many of you on 8 April.

Kind regards,

Fabiola Gianotti

CERN is launching the Science Gateway, a new scientific education and outreach centre targeting the general public of all ages. The building will be designed by world-renowned architects, Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The project will be funded through external donations, with the leading contribution coming from FCA Foundation, a charitable foundation created by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Construction is planned to start in 2020 and to be completed in 2022.

As part of its mission to educate and engage the public in science, and to share knowledge and technology with society, CERN is launching the Science Gateway, a new facility for scientific education and outreach. The purpose of the project is to create a hub of scientific education and culture to inspire younger generations with the beauty of science.Aimed at engaging audiences of all ages, the Science Gateway will include inspirational exhibition spaces, laboratories for hands-on scientific experiments for children and students from primary to high-school level, and a large amphitheatre to host science events for experts and non-experts alike.

With a footprint of 7000 square metres, the iconic Science Gateway building will offer a variety of spaces and activities, including exhibitions explaining the secrets of nature, from the very small (elementary particles) to the very large (the structure and evolution of the universe). The exhibitions will also feature CERN’s accelerators, experiments and computing, how scientists use them in their exploration and how CERN technologies benefit society. Hands-on experimentation will be a key ingredient in the Science Gateway’seducational programme, allowing visitors to get first-hand experience of what it’s like to be a scientist. The immersive activities available in the Science Gateway will foster critical thinking, evidence-based assessment and use of the scientific method, important tools in all walks of life.

“The Science Gateway will enable CERN to expand significantly its education and outreach offering for the general public, in particular the younger generations. We will be able to share with everybody the fascination of exploring and learning how matter and the universe work, the advanced technologies we need to develop in order to build our ambitious instruments and their impact on society, and how science can influence our daily life,” says CERN Director-General Fabiola Gianotti. “I am deeply grateful to the donors for their crucial support in the fulfilment of this beautiful project.”

The overall cost of the Science Gateway is estimated at 79 million Swiss Francs, entirely funded through donations. As of today, 57 million Swiss Francs have been already secured, allowing construction to start on schedule, thanks in particular to a very generous contribution of 45 million Swiss Francs from the FCA Foundation, which will support the project as it advances through the construction phases. Other donors include a private foundation in Geneva and Loterie Romande, which distributes its profits to public utility projects in various areas including research, culture and social welfare. CERN is looking for additional donations in order to cover the full cost of the project.

John Elkann, Chairman of FCA and the FCA Foundation, said:“The new Science Gateway will satisfy the curiosity of 300,000 visitors every year – including many researchers and students, but also children and their families – providing them with access to tools that will help them understand the world and improve their lives, whatever career paths they eventually choose. At FCA we’re delighted to be supporting this project as part of our social responsibility which also allows us to honour the memory of Sergio Marchionne: in an open and stimulating setting, it will teach us how we can work successfully together, even though we may have diverse cultures and perspectives, to discover the answers to today’s big questions and to those of tomorrow”.

As part of the educational portfolio of the Science Gateway, CERN and FCA Foundation will develop a programme for schools, with the advice of Fondazione Agnelli. The main goal will be to transmit concepts of science and technology in an engaging way, in order to encourage students to pursue careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). According to the approach of enquiry-based learning, students will be involved in hands-on educational modules and experiments in physics. Special kits will be delivered to classes, containing all necessary materials and instructions to run modules throughout the school year. As a follow-up, classes will be invited to take part in a contest, with the winners awarded a 2-3 day visit to the Science Gateway and CERN. There will be an initial period of experimentation, with a pilot programme in Italy focusing on junior high schools and involving up to 550,000 students. After the pilot, CERN plans to extend this initiative to all its Member States. 

The Science Gateway will be hosted in a new, iconic building, designed by world-renowned architects Renzo Piano Building Workshop, on CERN’s Meyrin site adjacent to another of CERN’s iconic buildings, the Globe of Science and Innovation. The vision for the Science Gateway is inspired by the fragmentation and curiosity already intrinsic to the nature of the CERN site and buildings, so it is made up of multiple elements, embedded in a green forest and interconnected by a bridge spanning the main road leading to Geneva. “It’s a place where people will meet,” says Renzo Piano. “Kids, students, adults, teachers and scientists, everybody attracted by the exploration of the Universe, from the infinitely vast to the infinitely small. It is a bridge, in the metaphorical and real sense, and a building fed by the energy of the sun, nestling in the midst of a newly grown forest.”

Also inspired by CERN’s unique facilities, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle accelerator, the architecture of the Science Gateway celebrates the inventiveness and creativity that characterise the world of research and engineering. Architectural elements such as tubes that seem to be suspended in space evoke the cutting-edge technology underpinning the most advanced research that is furthering our understanding of the origins of the universe.

A bridge over the Route de Meyrin will dominate the brand-new Esplanade des Particules and symbolise the inseparable link between science and society. Construction is planned to start in 2020 and be completed in 2022.

About FCA Foundation
The FCA Foundation, the charitable arm of FCA, supports charitable organizations and initiatives that help empower people, build strong, resilient communities and generate meaningful and measurable societal impacts particularly in the field of education.

About FCA
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) is a global automaker that designs, engineers, manufactures and sells vehicles in a portfolio of brands including Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Fiat Professional, Jeep®, Lancia, Ram and Maserati. It also sells parts and services under the Mopar name and operates in the components and production systems sectors under the Comau and Teksid brands. FCA employs nearly 200,000 people around the globe. For more information regarding FCA, please visit www.fcagroup.com.    

About RPBW        
The Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) was established in 1981 by Renzo Piano with offices in Genoa, Italy and Paris, France. The practice has since expanded and now also operates from New York.
RPBW is led by 10 partners, including founder and Pritzker Prize laureate, architect Renzo Piano. The practice permanently employs about 130 architects together with a further 30 support staff including 3D visualization artists, model makers, archivers, administrative and secretarial staff.
RPBW has successfully undertaken and completed over 140 projects around the world.
Currently, among the main projects in progress are: the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles; the École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay and; the GES 2 Center for the Arts in Moscow.
Major projects already completed include: the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris; the Kanak Cultural Center in Nouméa, New Caledonia; the Beyeler Foundation Museum in Basel; the New York Times Building in New York; the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco; the Chicago Art Institute expansion in Chicago, Illinois; The Shard in London; Columbia University’s Manhattanville development project in New York City; the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the Valletta City Gate in Malta; the Stavros Niarchos Cultural Center in Athens; the New Paris Courthouse and others throughout the world.
Exhibitions of Renzo Piano and RPBW’s works have been held in many cities worldwide, including at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 2018.
The Science Gateway involves Renzo Piano Building Workshop, architects, in collaboration with Brodbeck Roulet Architectes Associés (Geneva)
Design team: A.Belvedere, L.Piazza (partner and associate in charge)
Consultants: Arup / EDMS (structure); Transsolar (sustainability); SRG (MEP); Müller BBM (acoustics); Emmer Pfenninger (façades); Changement à vue (A/V, heater equipment); Arup (lighting); Charpente Concept (fire prevention); Atelier Descombes Rampini (landscaping)

About Fondazione Agnelli
The Fondazione Agnelli is an independent, non-profit research organisation in the fields of human and social sciences, established in 1966 and named after founder of Fiat, the Senator Giovanni Agnelli. Its mission is “to further understanding of change in contemporary society in Italy and in Europe”. Since 2008 the Fondazione’s focus is on education, as a powerful lever for an individual’s fulfilment, an important channel of social mobility, and a key factor for a country’s economic growth and social cohesiveness. It runs wide ranging studies to improve the Italian education system, works with schools to renew the teaching methodologies, and helps families in the school choice. www.fondazioneagnelli.it

Actually, I don’t. And usually, wouldn’t only a few people address you like that? And what if this article had been an e-mail? With “I love you” as the subject line…? Sent by us, you would have simply ignored it, no? On the other hand, we got your attention – piqued your curiosity – and this is what malicious evil-doers are aiming to do too: get your attention via malicious e-mails. If you open up these e-mails, reply, click on links or open attachments – they have succeeded!

E-mails are one of the two primary vectors for screwing up your digital life (see our Bulletin article entitled “Protect your family”). Like browsing onto the wrong – malicious – webpage, one all-too-quick click on an embedded link, one attachment too many opened, one password sent in reply to an e-mail from a malicious attacker, and your digital life is in jeopardy. Your PC could be compromised; your data could be getting encrypted; your webcam could start to watch you; your microphone could start to spy on you. The attacker is recording every key you strike, every move you make, every word you speak; reading all the documents you host; and following all your posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Privacy gone. Your digital life exposed. Game over.

Unfortunately, spotting malicious or fraudulent e-mails is getting more and more difficult. While CERN has deployed sophisticated measures in an effort to block malicious e-mails before they even arrive in your inbox, not all of them are filtered out: there might still be some that you can read. And worse, click on or reply to… So, beware: don’t let curiosity overwhelm you. Here are few hints as to how you can easily spot malicious e-mails. Use common sense. Is this e-mail really addressed to you? Do the contents (or does the context) make sense? Does it relate to you, your life, your job, your interests? Is it in one of the languages in which you normally communicate? An e-mail stating “I love you” but not coming from your loved ones should be treated with care. Message texts written in German, if you don’t speak that language, should be ignored. An attachment from “Dänische Telekom” is almost certainly fraudulent if you do not have a subscription with them. And nude photos from your favourite rock star or actor just don’t exist – so no need to open them!

Similarly, e-mails that threaten or try to blackmail you should not be responded to. In the past, there were malicious e-mail campaigns that included passwords, maybe even a password you recognise, claiming that this is proof enough that the attackers have compromised your computer. But these are just scams. While it is true that your password may have been exposed somewhere (see our Bulletin article entitled “An old scam in a new disguise”), your computer has not been tampered with by those attackers. Even if those e-mails seem to be sent from you own e-mail address, they are still a scam. The e-mail protocol, unfortunately, has its weaknesses, and sender addresses can easily be spoofed. So please don’t think that a valid sender means it’s a valid e-mail! And check the fine print: when using small fonts, “cern.ch”, “cerm.ch”, “cem.ch” or “cen.ch” all look quite alike…

Finally, beware of embedded links. The magic of web links is that what is displayed and where it takes you might be different. Hover your mouse over the link before clicking. A small pop-up box should display and show you the link’s true destination. If this looks different to what is displayed, looks like gibberish, or just doesn’t make sense, don’t click! Better to hold on and let us help you! We can easily check whether this is a fraudulent or legitimate e-mail. If in doubt, send the e-mail to us at Computer.Security@cern.ch. Or check out our recommendations of how to identify malicious e-mails. Or test yourself with this excellent quiz made by Google.

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Do you want to learn more about computer security incidents and issues at CERN? Follow our Monthly Report. For further information, questions or help, check our website or contact us at Computer.Security@cern.ch.

The L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science programme promotes the careers of women in science by awarding grants to talented young scientists. Six of them were invited to come to CERN: Zohra Dhouafli from Tunisia (neuroscience and biochemistry), Menattallah Elserafy from Egypt (molecular biology and genetics), Biola María Javierre Martínez from Spain (genomics), Priscilla Kolibea Mante from Ghana (neuroscience), Mika Nomoto from Japan (molecular biology and phytopathology) and Nurcan Tuncbag from Turkey (bioinformatics). They were joined by Karen Hallberg from Argentina, an expert in condensed matter and winner of the 2019 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science award.

All that remains to be done is to dot the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s: that’s a recurring refrain in physics, and one that’s invariably wrong. At the dawn of the 20^thcentury, there were those who were saying that physics was complete. Fortunately, there were others who chose to focus on the apparently innocuous clouds obscuring the contemporary theory’s horizon. Thanks to them, we now have quantum mechanics and relativity, concepts that underpin today’s physics, not to mention a raft of industries that would be impossible without them, even though quantum mechanics and relativity were literally unimaginable within the paradigm of 19^thcentury physics. 

We’re in a similar situation today, although the clouds are somewhat bigger. After decades notching up success after success, the Standard Model rules supreme over the world of fundamental particles. Discoveries such as that of the top quark in 1995 fit precisely into the theory like pieces in a jig-saw puzzle.

The discovery of the Higgs boson was different. Paradoxically, it was both the crowning achievement of the Standard Model, and the biggest cloud to rain on its parade. We know the Standard Model is incomplete; the discovery of the Higgs introduced us to a range of fundamental forces hitherto unprobed. It’s for this reason that we need to plan for a future collider to pick up the reins when the LHC reaches the end of its lifetime in the second half of the 2030s. The discovery of the Higgs is simultaneously the end of one journey, and the start of another. Just as Galileo could not have anticipated where his innovation would lead when he perfected the telescope, we cannot predict where future colliders will take us in terms of bringing new knowledge. Then as now, one thing is certain: such innovations lead to great rewards. 

The telescope is a fitting comparison, since today the fields of particle physics and cosmology are inextricably intertwined. They increasingly address the same questions from opposite ends of the distance scale. If we are to ensure that humankind’s centuries-old voyage of scientific discovery in fundamental physics does not come to an end, we need a globally coordinated effort with a diversified experimental programme ranging from particle physics to observational cosmology, astroparticle physics and beyond. In this mix, high-energy particle colliders will remain an indispensable ingredient. CERN, and European physics have always been in the vanguard of accelerator science, and have much to offer to the field as we move beyond the LHC era. The future of fundamental physics needs colliders as much as ever, and that’s why this update of the European strategy for particle physics is so important.

From Wednesday 10 April, a food truck will be installed on the Meyrin and Prévessin sites. This pilot project, set up in collaboration with Novae, aims to cope with the increasing demands on CERN’s restaurants, by offering a mobile and flexible catering alternative (see the menu "Pause de midi" below).

The food truck will be open from 11 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. from Monday to Friday, at a different place each day (in particular in front of Building 54, at the exit of the tunnel on road Einstein, between Buildings 180 and 183, and on the car park of IdeaSquare (Building 3179) - see the map. The meeting places in Prévessin will be announced soon).

This week, the food truck will be at IdeaSquare on Wednesday 10 April, at Building 180 on Thursday 11, and at Building 54 on Friday 12.

It is also possible to book the food truck for specific events.

Feel free to send us your comments by completing this form.

A new EDH form entitled "Bank Details" is available to members of the personnel wishing to register or modify the bank details used for the payment of their salary or any other financial benefit paid by CERN.

Detailed information can be found in the Admin e-guide procedure, which has been updated to reflect this change.

FAP department

Personnel Accounting

Tel. 79257