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Following on from the robotic mice, CERN engineers have now developed a super-charged kart to enable workers to race through the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) underground tunnel during the upcoming major works, starting this summer.
The karts promise a power boost to activities during this period, known as Long Shutdown 3 (LS3), which will see the LHC transformed into the High-Luminosity LHC. These vehicles will replace the bicycles that were used until now to travel through the 27-km underground tunnel, enabling engineers and technicians to speed to areas where improvements to the accelerator are required.
During CERN’s major works, starting this summer, karts and equipment will reach underground areas via giant green pipes. (Image: CERN)
“Each kart is turbo-boosted by 64 superconducting engines,” explains project leader Mario Idraulico. “When the engines are cooled to below their critical temperatures, the Meissner effect levitates the karts, allowing them to zip through the tunnels at high speeds and, mamma mia, they’re super!”
Early tests have been promising, and the next steps involve testing different kart designs in an underground race. Safety coordinator Luigi Fratello has ensured that each driver will be issued with Safety and Health Equipment for Long and Limited Stays (SHELLS), although his response to drivers wanting bananas in the tunnel was “Oh no!”
These karts, although developed to support CERN’s fundamental research programme, show clear applications for society. CERN’s Knowledge Transfer Group has begun discussions with European startup company Quantum Mushroom to explore aerospace applications and powering for next-generation anti-gravity vehicles.
Surprisingly, the kart project began from a collaboration between CERN engineers and onsite nursery school children – one example of CERN’s commitment to inspiring future generations. “We’re thrilled that the children’s kart designs were the inspiration for the engineered karts,” exclaimed schoolteacher Yoshi Kyouryuu, mid-way through painting spots on eggs for an Easter egg hunt.
“As educators, we promote curiosity from a young age, which is why we paint question marks all over our yellow school walls,” explained school director, Rosalina Pfirsich, looking up from her storybook. “With all the contributions the children have made to the upcoming High-Luminosity LHC project, we’ve taken to calling them Luma!”
katebrad Wed, 04/01/2026 - 08:17 Publication Date Wed, 04/01/2026 - 08:56After the major upgrades carried out during Long Shutdown 2 (LS2, 2019–2020), the LHC injector complex entered a new phase of operation. The LHC Injectors Upgrade (LIU) project consolidated and enhanced the accelerator chain to meet the demanding beam requirements of the High-Luminosity LHC (HiLumi LHC), scheduled to come into operation after Long Shutdown 3 (LS3, 2026–2030).
The LIU objective was clear: significantly increase the beam brightness and almost double the beam intensity delivered to the LHC. Each of the two LHC beams consists of more than 2000 tightly packed proton bunches that are spaced by just 25 nanoseconds, structured by the 40-MHz LHC radiofrequency system. After LS3, denser bunches will produce a substantially higher number of particle collisions in the LHC, opening the door to more precise measurements of the Higgs boson and rare processes and potentially revealing signs of new physics.
In the period between LS2 and LS3, efforts in the injector complex have focused on demonstrating that the upgraded machines could achieve the demanding LIU beam parameters. With this milestone now reached, attention has shifted towards ensuring reliable, stable and sustainable delivery of high-quality beams. This is a crucial step to guarantee that the HiLumi LHC can operate at peak performance from the very start of physics running, planned for 2030.
To this end, dedicated HiLumi LHC beam reliability runs have been introduced in the injector schedule. During selected weeks in 2026, short periods of beam time – typically around 30 minutes following each LHC fill – are reserved to simulate HiLumi LHC-type filling schemes with the new beam parameters. These runs are designed to test not only performance but also the robustness and reproducibility of operation and technical systems.
HiLumi LHC beam reliability runs already took place successfully in parallel operation last year in the machines of the Proton Synchrotron complex (Linac4, PSB and PS), and the first such reliability run in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) was successfully carried out last week. Operating mainly during daytime on weekdays, and carefully scheduled around LHC operation and machine development periods, the SPS performed eight injection attempts, six of which reached flat-top energy. Typically, during these runs, 15 to 20 injections were accumulated, all meeting the beam quality criteria required for transfer to the LHC.
As expected for such high-intensity beams, stability posed some initial challenges. Special beam adjustments were required at the start of each run to maintain stable conditions. Continuous optimisation of the SPS cycle – including improved energy matching, orbit corrections, fine-tuning of local bumps and commissioning of the beam scraper – resulted in a clear improvement in performance over the course of the week, as illustrated inthe figure below. Throughout the run, vacuum conditions remained comfortably within operational limits. Thus, by the end of the run, reaching flat top had become significantly more routine.
By the conclusion of last week’s run, the SPS was routinely delivering beams at full HiLumi LHC nominal parameters: bunch intensities of 2.3×10¹¹ protons, transverse emittances of 2.1 micrometres and bunch lengths of 1.65 nanoseconds.
Following a short interruption this week to give priority to HiRadMat operations, the reliability programme will resume with a three-week period of more intensive running. This next phase will extend operation into nights and weekends, further testing the endurance of the injector complex under realistic conditions. The goal is clear: to build on the strong performance achieved so far and establish the level of reliability required for the HiLumi LHC era.
Evolution of the time required to reach the HL-LHC beam parameters during last week’s reliability run, demonstrating a clear improvement over the course of the week. (Image: CERN)ehatters Thu, 03/26/2026 - 17:36 Byline Bettina Mikulec, Leader of the Operations Group (BE-OP) Publication Date Thu, 03/26/2026 - 17:30
As the weather gets warmer and Easter approaches, we are celebrating once more with the relaunch of our photography competition for the CERN community. Please send us your best photos of “spring at CERN” for the chance to win a Chocopass, kindly offered by the CAGI cultural kiosk at CERN and Geneva Tourism. This Chocopass lets you spend a day exploring Geneva and tasting chocolate from a range of shops across the city.
To enter:
A big thank you to the International Geneva Welcome Centre (CAGI) and Geneva Tourism for offering a Chocopass to the winner! The CAGI cultural kiosk is located in CERN’s main building and is open from Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. It offers numerous discounts for local activities and events both in Switzerland and in France.
Find out more about CAGI on their website.
ehatters Thu, 03/26/2026 - 13:50 Byline Internal Communication Publication Date Thu, 03/26/2026 - 13:38On Thursday 12 March, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski came to CERN to give an insider’s view of his time on the International Space Station (ISS) from 26 June to 14 July 2025.
Sławosz discussed the Ignis mission to the ISS, a Polish-led scientific and technical programme carried out in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA). One of the flagship investigations of the mission was developed at CERN and Sławosz personally installed and operated it on the ISS.
During the talk, Sławosz talked about this particular experiment and shared details of his experience in space.
The recording of Sławosz’s talk is now available online.
roryalex Thu, 03/26/2026 - 11:53 Publication Date Thu, 03/26/2026 - 11:52Following the successful conclusion of the 2023 cybersecurity audit, 2026 will see another series of vulnerability assessments, penetration tests (“pentests”) and cybersecurity reviews. While some are mandatory and conducted regularly, like those initiated when CERN buys new IT equipment, new software, or new hardware with an IT component, when CERN launches new projects encompassing information technology or when critical CERN computing services undergo a transition or migration to a newer major version, others are rather ad hoc and triggered at the initiative of the Computer Security Office. Here’s a short summary of what’s coming up next.
While the 2023 cybersecurity audit was formally and officially concluded by the CERN audit team at the end of 2025, some of its recommendations could only be scheduled for implementation in 2026 as either sophisticated preparations were needed or their deployment would heavily impact accelerator and experiment operations and therefore had to wait for LS3. Hence, this year will also see the technical conclusion of those remaining audit points, e.g. the change towards using 15-character passwords, the roll-out of 2-factor authentication to virtual machines used for accelerator software development, the newly encrypted CERN Wi-Fi (based on WPA3), the technical enforcement of CERN’s Computing Rules and the deployment of dedicated firewall protections for CERN’s Technical Network and, in 2027, the Campus network. So there is still some heavy lifting ahead.
Status of the 95 work tasks to fulfil the 2023 cyber-security audit. (Image: CERN)And there is more to come: at the end of 2025, the Computer Security Office contracted a penetration test of CERN’s Active Directory (AD) by an external company. Working like real attackers would, their experts were supposed to identify potential weaknesses and vulnerabilities in CERN’s AD which might allow an attacker to take over CERN’s computing infrastructure. And it comes as no surprise that they found a series of areas for improvement, so 2026 will see some modifications to CERN’s AD set-up and its LDAP configuration (like the extension of the usage of secure protocols like LDAPS, introduction of SMB signing, hardening of UNC paths, removal of insecure (encryption) protocols, and the change of some internal passwords). While many of these changes will happen behind the scenes, others might have some impact on CERN in general. However, as usual, the corresponding interventions will be announced well in advance.
In addition, in order to learn more about password hygiene at CERN and to complement the ongoing change from 8-character passwords with a certain complexity of symbols, numbers and upper/lowercase letters towards 15-character passwords (minimum), the Computer Security Office has invited a specialised company to come on site and try to brute-force and crack the passwords of CERN centrally managed primary, secondary and service accounts in a privacy-preserving manner. Owners of accounts with weak passwords will be informed and asked to improve their choice.
Also on the cards is a full-fledged vulnerability scan of thousands of internet-facing, public websites hosted at CERN (and not protected by the CERN Single Sign-On) as well as hundreds of servers opened towards the internet in order to identify weaknesses, misconfigurations and vulnerabilities. The corresponding tender is currently out, and the work is expected to be conducted during summer 2026 (and the findings fixed right afterwards). Once more, owners of websites or servers found to need improvement will be contacted directly. Already, here, a thank you for quickly addressing any issues!
And, finally, on 1 April, the Computer Security Office will invite all interested parties to conduct a series of pen-, pan- and panttesting offered in CERN’s Restaurant 2... Feel free to join!
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.
ehatters Wed, 03/25/2026 - 19:07 Byline Stefan Lueders Publication Date Wed, 03/25/2026 - 19:01In 2026, CERN has received funding for 13 new projects from the European Union’s R&D programme Horizon Europe, following applications to Research Infrastructures calls in 2025. All these projects will kick off this year and CERN will lead the coordination of five of them: ATTRACT EXPAND, EPITA, iRIS, PRISMAP+ and RADNEXT 2030.
The ATTRACT EXPAND project will build on the previous ATTRACT projects set up in 2018 to help turn world-class scientific research in Europe into commercial innovation. CERN’s innovation space, IdeaSquare, will play a key role in the project, coordinating it and acting as a hub within the ATTRACT Academy for many of the science-to-industry collaborations involving young European innovators. The new project aims to support 30 new high-potential technologies through an open call for funding.
EPITA aims to drive sustainable innovation in particle accelerator science by developing a portfolio of innovative technologies for a new generation of accelerators. This will be achieved through co-creation with industry in an open environment, maximising the technologies’ impact.
iRIS aims to develop and pilot AI-powered solutions to enhance the sustainability of research infrastructures. The project’s goal is to improve the energy efficiency of particle accelerators and technical infrastructures, develop strategies for the reuse of construction and demolition materials and accelerate soil restoration.
PRISMAP+ builds on the work of its predecessor project, PRISMAP, and aims to provide coordinated access to radionuclides for biomedical research in Europe through the medical-radionuclides.eu platform. It is conceived as a new phase of the European medical radionuclide programme, based on the production and delivery of high-purity-grade radionuclides.
RADNEXT 2030 builds on the success of the RADNEXT project to establish a sustainable, transnational and interdisciplinary radiation testing and research infrastructure that will support both scientific excellence and industrial competitiveness in Europe. Radiation effects induced by energetic particles in electronic and photonic components and systems are a critical concern for space science, avionics, high-energy physics, nuclear energy, IT infrastructure and many other mission-critical applications. This means that access to testing facilities is increasingly important. The project also supports activities at CERN, with RADNEXT 2030 enabling scientific access to the CHARM and HEARTS@CERN facilities.
If you wish to apply to a call from the European Union and need support or advice, get in touch with CERN’s EU Projects Office. Its mission is to oversee the participation of CERN in the EU programmes for scientific and technological cooperation and to provide support in the preparation and implementation of EU projects carried out at CERN.
ehatters Wed, 03/25/2026 - 18:50 Publication Date Wed, 03/25/2026 - 18:45
In an important step for open science, CERN has been selected to host a new phase of Open Research Europe (ORE), an initiative supported by the European Commission and a new funding consortium of European national funding agencies and research organisations. Aligned with the Action Plan for Diamond Open Access (2022)[1], the initiative is a community-led alternative to traditional academic publishing. When the new ORE platform is launched later this year, authorship eligibility will be expanded to include researchers affiliated with institutions in the countries that participate in the consortium. Publishing will remain completely free for both European Commission-funded researchers and authors from participating countries. The aim is to promote equity, diversity and transparency in scholarly communication while maintaining high standards of quality and integrity.
The ORE funding consortium currently comprises members from Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland[2]. The European Commission participates as a permanent observer in the governance body and provides dedicated financial support. CERN will provide the technical and operational infrastructure for the platform, built on the open source software Open Journal Systems (OJS), while governance and editorial oversight will remain the responsibility of the ORE consortium.
ORE follows the innovative publish–review–curate model, which promotes rigour and transparency in the publishing of research. Articles are first checked for integrity and compliance, then published and peer-reviewed openly. Peer-review reports are made public, and articles that successfully pass review are curated into subject-specific collections. This approach combines quality assurance with openness, while also enabling post-publication review.
Launched by the European Commission in 2021 to provide beneficiaries of EU research programmes with a no-fee open access publishing platform[3], ORE was designed to make publicly funded research more transparent, accessible and sustainable through an innovative publishing model. In the five years since its launch, the platform has seen steady growth and uptake across the research community, with more than 1,200 articles published and over 6,300 authors from more than 3,000 institutions worldwide taking part.
CERN’s role in operating ORE builds on its long-standing experience in developing and maintaining open science infrastructures and community-governed services for the global research community. By hosting ORE, CERN will provide a neutral, reliable and sustainable environment, drawing on expertise gained through flagship open science initiatives such as Zenodo, Invenio and SCOAP3.
“For CERN, hosting Open Research Europe is a natural extension of our commitment to an open, community-led scientific infrastructure,” said Mar Capeáns, CERN Director for Site Operations. “The platform supports the rapid sharing of research, while reinforcing Europe’s ability to shape the future of scholarly communication.”
“Open Research Europe is a strong example of a shared commitment to fostering the free flow of knowledge across the European Research Area and beyond”, stated Marc Lemaître, Director-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD), European Commission. “By ensuring open access to high-quality research, ORE facilitates the circulation of the latest research findings and amplifies public trust in science. Today, as European research funders and research organisations join forces to support ORE, we open a new chapter, one that strengthens open access scholarly publishing and improves research practices across Europe”.
Beyond the technical infrastructure, the initiative is expected to deepen collaboration between CERN, the European Commission, national representatives and research organisations. Working in partnership with the OPERAS Research Infrastructure, outreach and engagement activities will be expanded across Europe to attract eligible authors to the platform. ORE is expected to support a growing number of research outputs each year, making publicly funded science more accessible and transparent while setting a benchmark for equitable publishing initiatives in Europe and beyond.
More information on the future platform at: https://ore.eu
[1] https://scienceeurope.org/our-resources/action-plan-for-diamond-open-access/
[2] Austrian Science Fund (FWF), European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), French National Research Agency (ANR), French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), German Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), Italian Ministry of Universities and Research (MUR), Dutch Research Council (NWO), Research Council of Norway (RCN), Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal (FCT), Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS), Swedish research funders (Forte, Formas and the Swedish Research Council), Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
[3] Current platform (operational till fall 2026): https://open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu
rodrigug Wed, 03/25/2026 - 17:22 Publication Date Thu, 03/26/2026 - 15:17
Open Research Europe (ORE), a non-profit, open access scientific publishing platform, will be hosted at CERN as of autumn 2026. Initiated by the European Commission in 2021 and supported by a consortium of national research funders from eleven CERN Member States, ORE is designed to facilitate the rapid and transparent dissemination of publicly funded research.
Originally created as a platform exclusively for research funded by Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe, ORE will now additionally serve as a free publishing venue for any author whose national funding agency participates in the funding consortium. Following approval by the CERN Council in December 2025, CERN will provide the technical and operational infrastructure for ORE over a five-year pilot phase, while governance matters will remain with the ORE consortium.
ORE follows the publish–review–curate model, which allows research outputs to be made openly accessible after initial checks for integrity, policy compliance and eligibility, followed by transparent peer review. Reviewer reports and identities are publicly available and articles that successfully pass peer review are curated into discipline-specific collections.
CERN’s involvement builds on the Organization’s long-standing leadership in open science infrastructure. As the host, CERN will provide ORE with a neutral, reliable and sustainable operational environment, drawing on its experience in developing and operating a range of open science initiatives including Zenodo, Invenio and SCOAP³.
For the CERN community, ORE will offer an additional open access publishing option particularly suited to interdisciplinary and collaborative research that does not naturally align with established journals. Intended to be complementary to existing publishing platforms, ORE does not replace SCOAP³, which remains the primary open access route for high-energy physics publications. ORE will instead broaden the range of transparent, non-commercial publishing choices available to researchers while maintaining high standards of scientific quality and integrity.
Hosting ORE will deepen the collaboration between CERN, the European Commission and national research organisations and strengthen CERN’s strategic role in academic communication. As a trusted steward of open, community-oriented scientific infrastructure, CERN is committed to supporting open access to publicly funded research.
ehatters Wed, 03/25/2026 - 17:11 Publication Date Wed, 03/25/2026 - 17:08The top quark, the heaviest and most short-lived elementary particle known, has long been thought to decay too quickly to form bound states. However, a new result from the CMS Collaboration, presented this week at the Rencontres de Moriond conference, strengthens last year's observation that top quarks may, in fact, briefly pair up with their antimatter counterparts. This fleeting bound state – known as toponium – would be the most massive composite particle ever observed, completing the family of quark–antiquark states bound by the strong nuclear force.
Most matter around us is made of atoms, in which electrons cling to protons through the electromagnetic force. But protons themselves are not elementary. They belong to a broad family of composite particles called hadrons, in which quarks are held together by the strong nuclear force. Among them, the simplest are pairings of a quark with its own antiquark, which provide an especially clean window on the workings of the strong force. For decades, such states have been known for every type of quark but the most elusive: the top.
First discovered more than 30 years ago at the Tevatron accelerator near Chicago, the top quark has been extensively studied ever since, with experiments at the LHC going so far as to measure quantum entanglement between top quarks and antiquarks. Even when produced alongside its antiquark, the top typically decays before any bound state can form. Yet the hundreds of millions of top quark–antiquark pairs produced at the LHC, effectively making it a top-quark factory, provide such an enormous dataset that the rarest phenomena can leave a detectable trace.
The first hints of toponium appeared in searches for heavy Higgs-boson-like particles that could decay into a top quark–antiquark pair. An unexpected excess of collision events was observed at a mass close to twice the mass of the top quark, which is more characteristic of a bound state rather than a new fundamental particle. Detailed studies by the CMS and ATLAS experiments confirmed this excess using events in which both top quarks decay into leptons (electrons or muons).
The new CMS study approaches the problem from a different angle, examining events in which one top quark decays into a bottom quark, a charged lepton and a neutrino while the other decays into quarks that produce sprays, or “jets”, of particles. “Isolating the signal in this decay channel was challenging,” says Otto Hindrichs, a researcher at the University of Rochester who developed a new AI-assisted technique to reconstruct these collision events.
“Instead of reconstructing the mass of the top quark–antiquark pair directly, we focused on the relative velocity of the top quark and antiquark,” explains Yu-Heng Yu, a graduate student involved in the analysis. “If they form a bound state, their relative velocity should be much smaller than when they are produced independently,”
These new techniques proved highly effective. They resulted in the observation of an excess with a statistical significance of more than five standard deviations – the gold standard for a discovery in high-energy physics. The result provides a new, statistically independent confirmation of toponium production.
“Toponium is heavier than the heaviest known atomic nucleus, oganesson, making it the most massive bound state ever observed,” says Regina Demina, leader of the CMS group at the University of Rochester. “Its discovery deepens our understanding of the strong nuclear force and its ability to bind the fundamental constituents of matter.”
Find out more on the CMS website.
roryalex Tue, 03/24/2026 - 11:35 Byline CMS collaboration Publication Date Wed, 03/25/2026 - 11:31According to the theory of supersymmetry, there is a mirror world of hypothetical particles that could help resolve several physics puzzles, such as the surprisingly small mass of the Higgs boson and the nature of dark matter. The ATLAS Collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has conducted new searches for these so-called supersymmetric (SUSY) particles using machine-learning techniques. The results of these searches, presented this week at the Moriond conference, have placed some of the strongest bounds yet on the properties of SUSY particles.
Supersymmetry proposes that each particle in the Standard Model has a “superpartner”. The higgsino is the SUSY counterpart of the Higgs boson and is the subject of many SUSY searches. But detecting the higgsino, if it exists, is far from simple. The higgsino would not appear on its own but as a mixture of other SUSY particles, creating states known as neutralinos and charginos. Theorists predict that the lightest neutralino could be stable and, therefore, a strong candidate for dark matter. The other, heavier neutralinos and charginos would decay into this stable SUSY particle. However, these decays are expected to produce very little energy and the resulting low-energy particles would be extremely difficult to detect.
By deploying machine-learning techniques, the ATLAS Collaboration has been able to significantly improve the experiment’s sensitivity to low-energy particles. ATLAS now reports the results of two new searches for signs of SUSY particles in analyses of data from the LHC’s second run, which was collected between 2015 and 2018.
One of these searches involved hunting for signs of a disappearing track left by a chargino decaying into a stable neutralino, which is invisible to the detectors, and a low-energy pion. The pion follows a highly curved trajectory that is extremely difficult to identify in a busy proton–proton collision, causing the chargino’s track to “disappear”. The ATLAS Collaboration additionally searched for signs of heavier neutralinos decaying into the lightest and only stable neutralino and two low-momentum leptons, such as electrons. The researchers deployed neural networks to search deep into the low-momentum region of pions and leptons to find signs of them being produced through the decay of SUSY particles.
No signs of these SUSY particles were observed in either of these searches. However, these results have now set some of the most stringent limits yet on the masses and lifetimes of charginos and neutralinos, superseding the longstanding limits set by the Large Electron–Positron Collider, the LHC’s predecessor.
These limits help guide future searches for SUSY particles at the LHC and the High-Luminosity LHC. The search continues for the mirror world of SUSY.
roryalex Thu, 03/19/2026 - 09:25 Byline Rory Harris Publication Date Thu, 03/19/2026 - 11:23The LHCb experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has discovered a new particle consisting of two charm quarks and one down quark, a similar structure to the familiar proton, but with two heavy charm quarks replacing the two up quarks of the proton, thus quadrupling its mass. The discovery, presented at the ongoing Moriond conference, will help physicists better understand how the strong force binds protons, neutrons and other composite particles together.
Quarks are fundamental building blocks of matter and come in six flavours: up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom. They usually combine in groups of twos and threes to form mesons and baryons, respectively. Unlike the stable proton, however, most of these mesons and baryons, which are collectively known as hadrons, are unstable and short-lived, making them a challenge to observe. Producing them requires smashing together high-energy particles in a machine such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). These unstable hadrons will quickly decay, but the more stable particles that are produced as a result of this decay can be detected and the properties of the original particle can therefore be deduced.
Researchers have used this approach many times to find new hadrons, and the new particle just announced by the LHCb Collaboration brings the total number of hadrons discovered by LHC experiments up to 80.
“This is the first new particle identified after the upgrades to the LHCb detector that were completed in 2023, and only the second time a baryon with two heavy quarks has been observed, the first having being observed by LHCb almost 10 years ago,” says LHCb Spokesperson Vincenzo Vagnoni. “The result will help theorists test models of quantum chromodynamics, the theory of the strong force that binds quarks into not only conventional baryons and mesons but also more exotic hadrons such as tetraquarks and pentaquarks.”
In 2017, LHCb reported the discovery of a very similar particle, which consists of two charm quarks and one up quark. This up quark is the only difference between this particle and the new one, which has a down quark in its place. Despite the similarity, the new particle has a predicted lifetime that is up to six times shorter than its counterpart, due to complex quantum effects. This makes it even more challenging to observe.
By analysing data from proton–proton collisions recorded by the LHCb detector during the third run of the LHC, the LHCb Collaboration observed the new baryon with a statistical significance of 7 sigma, well above the threshold of 5 sigma required to claim a discovery.
“This major result is a fantastic example of how LHCb’s unique capabilities play a vital role in the success of the LHC,” says Mark Thomson, CERN Director-General. “It highlights how experimental upgrades at CERN directly lead to new discoveries, setting the stage for the transformative science we expect from the High-Luminosity LHC. These achievements are only possible thanks to the exceptional performance of CERN’s accelerator complex and the teams who make it all work and to the commitment of the scientists on the LHCb experiment.”
Further information:
LHCb presentation at Moriond is available here.
LHCb news article.
“If you place a large rock in a flowing stream, you can shelter objects located just downstream. It’s much the same with crystals and a beam of particles,” explains Francesco Velotti, applied physicist in the Accelerator Systems (SY) Department. This “crystal shadowing” technique has been successfully used in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) since 2021 and is now entering a new phase, with the recent installation of a refined system made of three crystals ready for testing in the SPS.
As the last injector for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the SPS also supplies proton beams for the North Area fixed-target experiments. Proton beams are extracted from the SPS using a process known as slow extraction. As its name suggests, slow extraction delivers the beam over long time intervals, producing extended particle pulses. This allows the beam to be spread out in space and time, a key requirement for fixed-target experiments that rely on stable and uniform particle fluxes.
But slow extraction comes with a significant challenge. Compared with fast extraction, it leads to higher beam losses, which in turn result in increased damage to accelerator components. One of the most exposed elements is the electrostatic septum, a critical device that shaves off the circulating beam from the extracted beam. Beam losses in this region are particularly problematic, as they limit accessibility for maintenance and place constraints on long-term operation.
To address this issue, a team of experts from the SY Department (SY-ABT, SY-BI and SY-STI), with contributions from the Beams (BE) Department (BE-CEM), developed and installed a crystal-based system to avoid beam losses. When inserted into the beam, the bent silicon crystals act as a protective shield for the septum through a so-called shadowing effect. The position of the crystals can be remotely adjusted according to beam conditions. This development was carried out in the framework of the DECRYCE project (DEvelopment of CRYstals for Collimation and beam Extraction), a project created in 2022 to address the full research and development cycle for crystal systems at CERN, from design and engineering of crystal benders to silicon strips, assembly of crystal systems and experimental validation.
“The principle of crystal shadowing is rooted in the precise alignment of a thin, bent crystal so that a portion of the halo particles is deflected away from sensitive components,” explains Luigi Esposito, applied physicist in the SY Department. “Detailed beam dynamics simulations have been used to design and optimise these crystal systems, and they are carefully compared with real beam measurements to validate performance and assess potential operational gains.”
“We installed the first prototype – a system made of a single silicon crystal – in the SPS in 2021. It showed a 50% beam loss reduction, both in dedicated measurement campaigns and in operational conditions, where an AI-based control system was key to ensuring reliable performance, confirming the simulations,” adds Velotti.
The full system, consisting of several aligned bent silicon crystals, was installed in the SPS in January and is now entering its operational validation phase, as the SPS just finished its beam commissioning phase.
Reducing beam losses is a critical enabler for the next generation of fixed-target experiments. With the planned increase in proton intensity required for SHiP and the High-Intensity ECN3 (HI-ECN3) project, protecting components – and thus ensuring safe, reliable long-term operation of the SPS infrastructure – will be essential.
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To learn more, read the scientific article: Demonstration of non-local crystal shadowing at the CERN SPS.
anschaef Wed, 03/11/2026 - 13:23 Byline Anaïs Schaeffer Publication Date Thu, 03/12/2026 - 08:21In CERN’s academic environment – a place where academia runs industrial installations, where there must be the academic freedom necessary for the advancement of research and freedom of thought, and where there is a permanent come and go of our colleagues and with them their thousands of personal “bring-your-own” devices – cutting-edge research relies on an open yet to-be-protected digital ecosystem. CERN’s Computer Security Office, mandated to protect the operations and reputation of the Organization against any kind of cyberthreat, is well aware of its challenge to find the best balance between academic freedom, personal devices and the defence of our global scientific infrastructure. The right balance means protecting CERN’s operations and reputation while guaranteeing the privacy of our staff and users in their workplace. And this requires constant choices, as computer security is, by nature, intrusive.
To protect an account, a device, a system or even an organisation, deep insight is needed into their internal functioning in order to distinguish the good from the bad, the malicious from the benign, the targeted attack from unconscious errors, the (weird) use cases from deep abuse. Indeed, this is how network-based or host-based intrusion protection systems, spam filtering and antivirus and antimalware software work. And this obviously and directly collides with the wish for privacy, for non-intrusiveness, to be left alone. While at home it is entirely up to you how much privacy you want, in an organisation like CERN, the stakes are different and the Organization has an obligation to protect itself. It must therefore always be the goal of any computer security team, at CERN or anywhere else, to find the appropriate balance between the privacy of our individuals and the security of us all.
Therefore, since “privacy” rightly holds a firm place at CERN(1), the Computer Security Office runs its prevention, protection and monitoring tools in alignment with best industrial security standards but also with a deep-rooted consideration for “data protection” and your “privacy”. CERN’s Computing Rules (i.e. Operational Circular No. 5 and its Subsidiary Rules), which govern the work of the Office, provide the corresponding guardrails in how far “security” impacts “privacy”. Actually, while security can exist without privacy, privacy cannot exist without security, which does not imply that security is always paramount. By way of example, “privacy” is the key reason why the Computer Security Office promotes the use of encrypted communication channels while accepting that this inhibits any deep-packet inspection of the network traffic at CERN’s outer perimeter firewall. “Privacy” trumps “security”.
In other cases, however, the balance is more delicate. Take the CERN-provided antimalware protection as an example. The CERN IT department provides sophisticated software with remote forensics capabilities for a subset of centrally managed Windows computers (the so-called “hardened” PCs), but deploys a lighter version to all other Windows and MacOS devices owned by CERN (i.e. purchased on a CERN budget code)(2). For the latter, the antimalware software just reports virus findings to the central Windows team for follow-up, virus analysis and incident response, but does not grant the team (or the Computer Security Office) any remote investigation possibilities. Personal devices, furthermore, can get the CERN antimalware software for free without any strings attached. CERN “security” balanced with “privacy”.
Like the antimalware, CERN’s automatic network inspection of unencrypted traffic at the firewall level, the automatic analysis and filtering of any malicious domain resolution (at the DNS level), the automatic spam and malware filtering linked to the CERN email system, and the automatic collection and analysis of all user interactions with CERN computing services like LXPLUS, all touch upon sensitive if not personal data − including of a purely private nature(3). And due to this, but also due to the sheer size of CERN’s digital infrastructure, all such data is fully automatically processed with as little expert intervention as possible. Expert intervention always implies a professional need for incident triage and incident response, as is well documented in the Computer Security Office’s Privacy Notice (aka “RoPO”), Privacy Statement and the RoPOs of the individual IT services. Admittedly, this still requires a certain level of trust in the IT Department’s service managers and the members of the Computer Security Office (and strict accountability!). All of them have a special clause in their MERIT form stating that their “functions, allowing access to personal data or other confidential and/or sensitive information, imply strict conformance to the rules laid down in OC11 and OC5, in particular those governing confidentiality”. Any abuse of their function is considered a severe violation of the CERN Computing Rules (OC5) and would subsequently be subject to liabilities and sanctions. There is a zero-tolerance policy. There is no yellow card for misconduct. One red card, and they’re out.
So, in the end, “privacy vs security” boils down to trust. The balance between privacy and security at CERN is built on transparent processes, automation wherever possible, strict oversight of necessary human involvement, and trust in the professionalism and respectfulness of CERN’s Computer Security Office, the members of the IT department and any other expert within the Organization handling personal data. At CERN, “privacy” and “data protection” play a big role, but outside CERN...? How much more or less do we trust our colleagues compared to those folks running ChatGPT, Gmail, Instagram or TikTok cloud services? Or those providing external software suites or even the whole operating system to us? Isn’t it there that we pay for their “free” service with our data?
(1) It is important to recall that “privacy” and “data protection” are not identical concepts: privacy relates to an individual’s expectation of being left alone, while data protection governs how personal data is collected, used, accessed and safeguarded under defined rules such as the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the CERN equivalent: OC11.
(2) CERN-managed and CERN-owned devices are also initially configured with local disk encryption and remote wiping capabilities as laptops tend to get stolen or lost. Without disk encryption, locally stored data can be accessed despite any password protection as the disk/memory itself is unprotected. For the same reason, remote wiping (like Apple’s “Find My”) prevents a thief from abusing the device in any way. In both cases, CERN IT provides such a functionality in a privacy-preserving manner.
(3) CERN’s OC5 tolerates the use of CERN’s computing facilities for personal use (see its annex) as long as this use is in compliance with the Computing Rules.
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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.
anschaef Wed, 03/11/2026 - 12:53 Byline Computer Security Office Publication Date Wed, 03/11/2026 - 12:49CERN Science Gateway has reached another milestone: the delivery of its 1000th science show!
Since opening its doors in October 2023, Science Gateway has welcomed nearly 900 000 visitors of all ages to explore the fundamental questions of the Universe. Among its most popular activities are the science shows – dynamic, interactive demonstrations led by CERN guides and tailored to a broad audience of different age levels, including school groups, families and the general public.
Designed to make complex scientific concepts accessible and entertaining, these live shows combine spectacular experiments, multimedia elements and audience participation. From the physics of particle collisions to the properties of superconductivity, electromagnetism and cryogenics, the science shows translate the research carried out at CERN into engaging visual experiences. Visitors might see superconductors levitate, follow particles through different detector layers or discover the beauty in phase transitions. Each demonstration is carefully crafted to spark curiosity while maintaining scientific accuracy.
Members of the CERN community are of course warmly invited to visit CERN Science Gateway with their family or friends and attend one of the science shows.
To register, please visit this page, and don’t forget to check the programme for the coming days.
Become a CERN guide and run your own super-cool science show (and more)!
To become a CERN guide, you can join the introduction course held every 3–4 weeks, which will give you an overview of what being a CERN guide entails. From there, further courses are available depending on what type of guide you would like to be.
Because, of course, CERN guides are needed everywhere at CERN. If you imagine yourself as a more ‘traditional’ guide, you should know that there are currently more than ten exciting visit points in CERN’s visits portfolio, such as the Antimatter Factory, the ALICE experiment (surface), the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) control room, the ATLAS experiment (surface), the CERN Control Centre (CCC), the Data Centre, the LHCb experiment (surface), the Synchrocyclotron (SC), the SM18 test facility and the newly inaugurated Linac2 visit point.
Indeed, CERN’s Visits Service and Visual Impact and Exhibitions Section recently collaborated on redesigning the Linac2 visit tour, which has just reopened to the public after several months of renovation work. The new tour offers visitors and guides alike an enriched, more immersive experience, designed to highlight the history and scientific significance of this major facility.
New Linac2 visit point. More photos here. (Image. CERN)So, fancy becoming one of the insiders? Join the introduction course, check the guides website or contact guides.manager@cern.ch.
And remember, becoming a guide can benefit you, too.
anschaef Wed, 03/11/2026 - 12:33 Byline Anaïs Schaeffer Publication Date Wed, 03/11/2026 - 12:28
From physics analysis and detector operations to software development and upgrade work, ATLAS PhD students make critical contributions to the Collaboration’s scientific mission while completing their degrees. This year’s ATLAS Thesis Awards drew from more than 200 eligible theses, reflecting both the scale of the Collaboration and the breadth of student research. From this pool, the Thesis Awards Committee reviewed 36 formal applications before selecting eight winners.
This year’s recipients are: Takumi Aoki from the University of Tokyo (Japan), Kartik Deepak Bhide from Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg (Germany), Antonio Jesús Gómez Delegido from Universitat de València (Spain), Simon Florian Koch from the University of Oxford (UK), Elena Mazzeo from Università degli studi di Milano (Italy), Ryan Roberts from the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (USA), Stephen Nicholas Swatman from the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Elliot Watton from the University of Glasgow and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK).
“Students are the ‘soul’ of the ATLAS Collaboration,” said Jean‑François Arguin, ATLAS Thesis Awards Committee Chair. “They make up a third of ATLAS scientific authors and carry out much of the essential work that keeps ATLAS at the frontiers of scientific research. The quality and breadth of this year’s nominations made the Committee’s decision especially challenging, and we congratulate all nominees for their outstanding work.”
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Read more on the ATLAS website.
anschaef Wed, 03/11/2026 - 12:19 Byline ATLAS collaboration Publication Date Wed, 03/11/2026 - 12:17
During the recommissioning phase, the operations teams, together with equipment and machine-protection experts, worked around the clock to bring the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) back into operation. Finally, on the afternoon of Saturday, 7 March, stable beams for physics data taking were declared for the first time in 2026. This milestone marks the beginning of the final LHC data-taking run before the High-Luminosity LHC (HiLumi LHC) upgrade.
With Long Shutdown 3 (LS3) scheduled to begin at the start of July in the case of the LHC, the 2026 run will be short but densely packed. Every day counts, and the operations teams have mapped out a precise sequence of running phases to maximise the physics output during the machine’s final months.
The LHC restarted with just four bunches circulating per beam. Over the coming weeks, this number will gradually increase to more than 2400 bunches per beam. This intensity ramp-up is not simply a matter of injecting additional bunches: at each new intensity step, beam stability, beam losses and beam-induced effects – such as electron cloud and equipment heat-up – must be carefully assessed before proceeding further.
Once nominal intensity is reached, the LHC proton physics programme will begin, with around three weeks of low pile-up data taking in the ATLAS and CMS experiments. These lower collision rates provide fewer but cleaner events, which is ideal for precision measurements such as determining the mass of the W boson.
This will be followed by a high pile-up phase, pushing up luminosity to extend the integrated dataset beyond the already achieved Run 3 target and increasing the statistical reach for rare processes.
Later in the run, proton collisions will give way to around three weeks of lead-ion collisions, recreating the extreme conditions of the early Universe and producing the quark–gluon plasma that is studied by the LHC experiments, primarily ALICE.
The run will conclude with a two-week high-intensity test, in which bunches containing significantly more protons than in standard operation will circulate in the machine. These tests will probe the LHC’s behaviour under conditions closer to those expected at the HiLumi LHC and will help to identify both known and unexpected limitations that will have to be addressed during the upcoming four-year upgrade.
At the end of June, the LHC will fall silent. When it returns in 2030 as the HiLumi LHC, it will operate with a substantially higher collision rate, opening the door to deeper studies of known phenomena and increasing the chances of observing extremely rare processes.
These final months of running are therefore not just an ending, but an essential prelude to the LHC’s next chapter.
The Antimatter Factory roars back to life
CERN’s Antimatter Factory has also restarted its physics programme. After an unusually short year-end technical stop (YETS), the facility officially began its final six months of physics before LS3 at 17:30 on 27 February.
In just two intense weeks of recommissioning, the accelerator teams restored the full chain – from the first beam delivered by the Proton Synchrotron (PS) to the antiproton production target, through the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) and the ELENA (Extra Low ENergy Antiproton) ring – until antiprotons were once again reaching the experiments.
The experiments arrived at the starting line ready. Nearly all the collaborations were prepared to begin data-taking immediately, and two experiments – BASE-STEP and PAX – even managed to receive a few shots of beam during the decelerator set-up phase.
Together with the other experiments – ALPHA, ASACUSA, AEgIS, GBAR, PUMA and BASE – the programme continues the search for clues to one of the Universe’s deepest mysteries: why matter dominates over antimatter. By studying the properties of antimatter with ever-greater precision, these experiments aim to test fundamental symmetries of nature and explore questions such as how antimatter behaves in a gravitational field.
anschaef Wed, 03/11/2026 - 12:10 Byline Bettina Mikulec, Leader of the Operations Group (BE-OP) Publication Date Thu, 03/12/2026 - 12:05
IdeaSquare, the innovation space at CERN, has created a new workshop for the CERN community and visiting students. Named ‘The Forge’, the workshop is designed to support rapid prototyping from idea to iteration, and opened for bookings at the start of this year.
Constructed with assistance from the Site and Civil Engineering (SCE) Department, the new workshop brings the former 3D Printer Studio and two containers together to create one collaborative space. Featuring a large central worktable for ambitious builds and a modular peg wall for flexible set-ups, it offers the space and tools needed for experimental and inventive work. With easily accessible 3D printers and interactive smartboards, users can quickly build and experiment with prototypes.
“We started the process about a year ago when I was a visiting student here at IdeaSquare,” said Nick Lindsay, designer of the workshop. “It was missing a larger area to work together, which was limiting for visiting student groups.”
Most of these groups are made up of master’s students from a variety of different disciplines participating in the IdeaSquare Planet programme. This programme asks them to imagine what problems a new society started from scratch on an exoplanet would encounter, before applying their solutions to real-world scenarios.
“IdeaSquare’s educational programmes offer students a unique opportunity to work alongside CERN scientists and engineers, an experience ‘The Forge’ is designed to better facilitate,” explained Dina Zimmerman, Prototyping Facilitator at IdeaSquare.
The new workshop will also better serve the CERN community, who have benefitted from the free prototyping spaces provided by IdeaSquare since 2014. Over 200 CERN personnel from across the Organization use its spaces every year to learn about design-driven methodologies, take part in prototyping workshops and create or test prototypes for their experiments. Examples of prototypes designed there include elements for a Barrel Timing Layer for the High-Luminosity upgrade of the LHC, a Stirling cryo-cooler and a 3D-printed polystyrene-based plastic scintillator for the FASER experiment. Members of the CERN community can sign up for training on the use of the prototyping facilities or machines before booking a slot in the prototyping calendar.
To discover more projects and prototypes developed by members of the CERN community at IdeaSquare, come along to the “Prototyping at CERN” event on 15 April.
Lead designer of ‘The Forge’ Nick Lindsay and Prototyping Facilitator Dina Zimmermann have worked together to create the new space. (Video: CERN) ehatters Wed, 03/11/2026 - 10:42 Byline Jimmy Poulaillon Publication Date Thu, 03/12/2026 - 10:25The final laps before the major overhaul: CERN’s accelerator operators have just fired the starting pistol for the last run of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). At the end of June, four years of work will begin to transform the LHC into a high-luminosity accelerator (the HiLumi LHC).
For now, let’s turn our attention to the first proton collisions of the year, which were recorded by the LHC experiments on Saturday, 7 March at 15h58.
After 11 years of high-energy operation, the LHC teams have acquired such expertise that it is easy to forget the complexity of this 27-kilometre-circumference machine located 100 metres underground, equipped with more than 9000 superconducting magnets, thousands of electrical circuits and hundreds of thousands of pieces of equipment, and operating at ‑271 °C thanks to the world’s largest cryogenic system.
“The restart of the CERN accelerator complex after the traditional winter shutdown was completed in record time,” says Matteo Solfaroli Camillocci, Head of LHC Operations. “The teams have a deep understanding of the machine and are demonstrating impressive finesse in their work. It’s a real team effort, and we are all looking forward to the last few months of operation.”
Several types of collisions are on the menu for these four months of operation, which are starting with nine weeks of proton collisions and will be followed by three weeks of operation with lead ions. The 2026 run will end with two weeks of tests with high-intensity proton beams: bunches containing 40% more protons than the standard LHC bunches will be circulated to test the impact on the equipment. Following on from the tests carried out last autumn, the aim is to study the behaviour of high-intensity beams, which will be part of everyday operation at the HiLumi LHC, and to identify any unforeseen limitations before the shutdown begins. However, at such high intensities, the beams will contain a limited number of bunches, as the current accelerator and experiments cannot handle a higher load.
29 June will mark the start of four years of major work, during which part of the LHC will be dismantled and replaced with innovative equipment that is currently in production. The HiLumi LHC, which will start operating in 2030, will generate a significantly higher number of collisions than the current LHC, allowing physicists to study known mechanisms, such as the Higgs boson, in greater detail and to observe possible new, very rare phenomena.
cmenard Fri, 03/06/2026 - 16:28 Byline Corinne Pralavorio Publication Date Sat, 03/07/2026 - 16:00The NA62 Collaboration has dramatically reduced the uncertainty in its measurement of an extremely rare particle decay, in results just presented at the 2026 La Thuile conference.
The study of rare decays gives physicists the chance to probe the Standard Model of particle physics. Researchers can determine what is known as the branching ratio of a decay, which describes how many particles decay through a particular process as a fraction of the total number of decays that occur. The branching ratio of the decay that the NA62 Collaboration has studied – the decay of a positively charged kaon into a positively charged pion and neutrino–antineutrino pair (written K+→π+νν) – can be predicted theoretically with a very high degree of precision. Thanks to this ‘theoretical cleanliness’, this particular kaon decay is extremely sensitive to new physics beyond the Standard Model but, with a predicted branching ratio of less than one in 10 billion, it is extremely rare and very challenging to observe.
The NA62 experiment was designed to study the K+→π+νν process in depth and therefore produces a lot of kaons, which is why it is also known as the “kaon factory”. The kaons are created by firing a high-intensity beam of protons from the Super Proton Synchrotron at a beryllium target. This produces nearly a billion particles every second, of which around 6% are kaons whose decay products can be studied in great detail using the NA62 detectors.
In 2024, the NA62 Collaboration reported having observed this process with a statistical significance of five standard deviations, the gold standard in particle physics for claiming a discovery. Now, the researchers have included the data recorded in 2023–2024 in their analyses and used improved data analysis techniques based on cutting-edge machine learning algorithms. The results, combined with the previous data taken since the experiment began, have significantly refined their understanding of the ultra-rare kaon decay.
With the full dataset, the NA62 Collaboration obtained an updated value of the K+→π+νν branching ratio of 9.6 +1.9 −1.8 × 10−11 , with an uncertainty 40% smaller than before.
“This is the most sensitive dataset we have analysed yet,” said lead data analyst Joel Swallow. “The fact that we can see clearly and measure with precision something so rare and elusive is a great success from a technological point of view.”
With the precision of the current result, the kaon decay appears to occur as predicted by theory and sets powerful constraints on new physics beyond the Standard Model.
“This stress test of the Standard Model is remarkable given the extreme rareness and theoretical cleanliness of the process that we investigated,” said NA62 spokesperson Giuseppe Ruggiero. “We have demonstrated once again that our current leading theory of nature has incredible predictive power.”
roryalex Wed, 03/04/2026 - 11:59 Byline Rory Harris Publication Date Wed, 03/04/2026 - 11:58British experimental particle physicist Mark Thomson is CERN’s Director-General from 2026 to 2030. In the video interview below, he answers questions about where particle physics stands today, his priorities for the next five years, the main challenges he foresees, his management style and how he spends his downtime.
Find out more about Mark Thomson.
German accelerator physicist and former leader of the High-Luminosity LHC project Oliver Brüning has taken the helm of the Accelerators and Technology (ATS) Sector as CERN prepares to enter the upcoming long shutdown (LS3). The ATS Sector includes four departments: Beams (BE), Engineering (EN), Accelerator Systems (SY) and Technology (TE).
Find out more about Oliver Brüning.
Gautier Hamel de Monchenault, Director for Research and Computing:
French particle physicist and former spokesperson of the CMS experiment Gautier Hamel de Monchenault now leads the Research and Computing (RCS) Sector, which consists of three departments: Experimental Physics (EP), Information Technology (IT) and Theoretical Physics (TH).
Find out more about Gautier Hamel de Monchenault.
Ursula Bassler, Director for Stakeholder Relations
German and French particle physicist and former President of the CERN Council Ursula Bassler joins CERN to lead the Stakeholder Relations (SR) Sector, which comprises the Stakeholder Engagement (SR-SE) and Education, Communications and Outreach (SR-ECO) Groups.
Find out more about Ursula Bassler.
Jan-Paul Brouwer, Director for Finance and Human Resources
Originating from the Netherlands and bringing with him a wealth of experience in HR and finance at various international and academic organisations, including the European Commission and the European Parliament, Jan-Paul Brouwer joins CERN to lead the Finance and Human Resources (FHR) Sector, which comprises three departments: Finance and Administrative Processes (FAP), Human Resources (HR) and Industry, Procurement and Knowledge Transfer (IPT).
Find out more about Jan-Paul Brouwer.
Spanish particle physicist and former Site and Civil Engineering Department Head Mar Capeáns nowtransitions to leading the new Site Operations (SO) Sector, in a role similar to that of a traditional Chief Operating Officer (COO). The sector includes three departments: Health, Safety and Environmental Protection (HSE) (whose Department Head reports directly to the Director-General), the new Organisational Support and Improvement (OSI) Department and Site and Civil Engineering (SCE).
Find out more about Mar Capeáns.
Originally from Italy, Enrica Porcari was previously Head of the Information Technology Department and now takes up the new role of Chief Information Officer (CIO), responsible for steering the Organization’s information technology strategy, governance and policy. This encompasses areas such as cybersecurity, data privacy and cross-organisational initiatives such as artificial intelligence (AI) and relevant external partnerships.
Find out more about Enrica Porcari.
Video interview with CERN’s Director-General, Mark Thomson, in February 2026. (Video: CERN)
ehatters Wed, 02/25/2026 - 17:02 Publication Date Thu, 02/26/2026 - 14:30
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