A word from the DG : Training tomorrow’s scientists


Research and discovery are CERN’s primary missions, but education and outreach come a close second. Sharing the results of our research and discovery is enshrined in CERN’s convention and is something that CERN has always taken seriously. Right from the start, this Organization has had an active public information office. Today, our educational activities span the full range from informal visits for some 26000 members of the public each year to formal schools for professional physicists, accelerator scientists and IT specialists, and a day never goes by without members of the international media on–site.

The 2007 Summer Student Programme has just come to an end, so it is now an opportune moment to speak of the impact of CERN’s educational programmes. This year we welcomed perhaps the most diverse group of summer students we’ve ever had the privilege to work with. Some 200 young people from 53 countries found places in all corners of the Laboratory, a veritable microcosm of CERN itself. Just as CERN prides itself on breaking down political barriers, so did our summer students this year. Their end-of-term celebrations reflected a rainbow of nationalities, and among the American, Austro-German, Celtic, Dutch, French and Italian parties was an Israeli-Palestinian party on 22 August.

The summer students perform valuable jobs at CERN, and they leave with a prestigious entry in their CVs to pursue careers in all walks of life. This year, at the same time as the Summer Student Programme, we also hosted three residential schools for high-school teachers. The first was for teachers from all Member States as well as Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, the USA and Singapore. The second was for Spanish teachers from Catalonia, and the third for teachers from Hungary. 2007 marks the 10th anniversary of CERN’s high-school teacher programmes, and in that decade we have gone from nine teachers in the first year to some 900 registered for this year’s 19 schools. Like all of CERN’s education and outreach programmes, the participants in our Summer Student and High-School Teacher Programmes go on to be powerful ambassadors, helping CERN fulfil its mission of sharing what we do, and helping Europe prepare for an increasingly science-based future.

Robert Aymar