Communicating on the same wavelength
With a view to boosting efficiency and improving coordination, all the teams responsible for communication at CERN have been brought together to form the new Education and Communication Group.
As its acronym EC implies, this group is a "European community". But more modestly, at CERN these initials stand for Education and Communication, the name of the new group responsible for communication at the Laboratory. Since the start of the year, CERN's communication teams have been brought together under one umbrella for the sake of greater coherence and better coordination. James Gillies, formerly Editor of the CERN Courier, takes over the group's reins and at the same time takes charge of press relations, together with Renilde Vanden Broeck.
The EC Group comprises four sections. The Events and Sponsoring section, led by Paola Catapano, looks after sponsorship issues and certain major events. The External Communication section, headed by Robert Cailliau, is responsible for CERN's Web pages and for the Travelling Exhibition. The Publications Section, under the temporary responsibility of James Gillies, covers internal and external publications (Weekly Bulletin, CERN Courier, Annual Report and brochures). Within this section Christine Sutton takes over the CERN Courier ad interim. Last but not least the Visits and Educational Programmes section, led by Emma Sanders, handles CERN visits, the Microcosm exhibition and events for schools and teachers.
The new Education and Communication group with the ETT division leader J.-A. Rubio.
Whether through the Web, exhibitions, visits or publications, the EC Group's goal is to inform not only the general public but also the community of CERN staff, physicists and teachers about the research, events, innovations and major decisions of the Organization.
To achieve these aims the group is putting together a host of new projects in 2003. For instance, by the end of the year Microcosm will be inaugurating the world's very first "Grid café". The exhibition is also preparing to play host to a series of lectures and discussions on the first Monday of the every month known as the "Lundi découvertes", where CERN researchers will present a scientific subject to the general public. The section is setting up new visits itineraries, which will include the ATLAS and LHCb experiments, and is preparing to open its doors to 50 teachers for the 2nd "Physics Teachers @ CERN" conference at the end of February. On the publications side, CERN's general brochures are being brought up to date, and the section has started work on the special publications to mark CERN's Fiftieth Anniversary. This will be the major event of 2004, coordinated by the Events and Sponsoring section, also responsible for CERN's interaction with EIROforum, a think-tank comprising the seven largest European research organisations. Finally, the External Communication section is completely revamping the Travelling Exhibition and putting the finishing touches to CERN's new public Web pages (see Bulletin n°4/2003).
As you can see, the new EC group has many fish to fry! If you like meeting people and wish to share your knowledge with others, you might even be able to help them by becoming a CERN guide for the Visits Service or an official contact person for the Press Office.
