Fifty years of science, memories, and events
In 2004 CERN celebrates its 50th anniversary. More precisely, on Wednesday 29 September 2004, the signature of the convention that established CERN will be 50 years old. During this special year, CERN's public web site will host a celebratory Fiftieth Anniversary web site.
Now CERN has a new web portal: the special Fiftieth Anniversary web site! The new web site is organised into three main areas; science, events, and memories.
In the science section you will find a timeline featuring milestones in scientific achievement at CERN accompanied by photographs and an explanation of the historical and topical significance of each event. The timeline will span more than 50 years, encompassing the very first meeting to the future of CERN. These "Golden Jubilee Photos" will also be published in the Bulletin, and will highlight a different historical event each week.
In the events page of the web site you can discover what will be happening and when, in the region, at CERN, in the Member States and world-wide. Celebrations will officially start in the Geneva region with the introduction of a Swiss CERN-stamp in March. Several festival activities will also be devoted to CERN including the street festival in Ferney-Voltaire in June (Fête à Voltaire: Voltaire, Newton et le CERN), the Fêtes de Genève in August and the children's "Gôuters des Sciences" ("Nous sommes tous radioactifs!") at the Forum Meyrin in October.
The memories section, where you can contribute your own stories and pictures, will be up and running soon.
Highlights of the Fiftieth Anniversary programme:
On 29 September 2004, CERN will celebrate its 50th birthday with a giant cake. On that day in 1954, representatives of the founding Member States of CERN ratified the organisation convention and CERN formally came into being .
On Saturday 16 October, CERN will host an open day. The official celebration will be on 19 October, together with the inauguration of the Globe of Innovation, a new exhibition and networking centre built on site to provide a forum for science to meet with society.
The Member States will also celebrate by organising public lectures, themed exhibitions, film projections and "cafés scientifiques". The celebratory programmes of all Member States aim to have as much overlap as possible.
For example, an initiative by the United Kingdom will send about 20 young art students, from the UK, Holland, Ireland and Switzerland, to spend one week gaining inspiration at CERN from 26 January. The artworks they create following the visit will be exhibited at their art schools in June and at CERN and Forum Meyrin in October. The artworks will then be available for a European tour.
For its part, France is preparing a cosmophonic show for the official celebrations on 19 October. In this show, the cosmic rays passing through the earth are converted into musical notes by means of a special detector known as a cosmophone. This show will then tour the Member States. In April, particle physics and colliders will be the star attractions at an exhibition at Paris's Palais de la Découverte.
On 26 February in Turin, Italy will be organising a Science Thursday entitled «From the Quark to the Web» with the participation of Robert Cailliau (CERN) and Chiara Mariotti (CERN). There are also plans for CERN to take part in the «Genoa, European City of Culture» programme in November.
Throughout October events will also be held in a dozen towns around Germany. To name but a few of the other Member States organising festivities, Austria will be putting on a special concert of classical music, and Spain, like Switzerland, will be issuing a special fiftieth anniversary postage stamp.
The celebrations are planned to conclude in December with a 24-hour webcast covering every time zone on the planet. Conducted by CERN, in association with physics laboratories and museums around the world, the webcast will allow members of the public to ask questions to scientists from CERN and collaborating labs.
http://www.cern.ch/CERN50/
CERN50 needs your help!
For the events here at CERN, and in the region, CERN needs lots of volunteers to manage the thousands of visitors expected. Please note the open day, being held on Saturday 16 October, and the street parades of the Fêtes de Genève on Friday 30 July and Sunday 1 August in your diary. More information about how to volunteer will be published on the CERN50 website and in the Bulletin as events approach.
