Setting new standards

The imminent start-up of the LHC is an event that excites everyone who has an interest in the fundamental physics of the Universe. We are living through a time of radical change in particle physics, and the energy scale that the LHC will be able to explore can yield discoveries of new forms of matter, new forces of nature, new dimensions of space and time. This is a wonderful period for CERN as scientists from all over the world prepare to take data that could lead to historic scientific breakthroughs. On behalf of the ITER Organization and its staff I would like to wish you the greatest success.

CERN and ITER have many similarities, and ITER will certainly learn from the years of hard-won experience that has been accrued at CERN. Although our fields of experimentation are not the same, the technologies needed for particle accelerators and large detectors are frequently related to those needed to build a large fusion tokamak. Cryogenics, diagnostics, accelerators, vacuum, magnets, are only a selection of the technologies that ITER and CERN share. Since the signing of the CERN /ITER collaboration agreement in 2008, we have already had many useful exchanges with CERN specialists and I am confident that this collaboration will continue to the benefit of both laboratories.

CERN has established new standards of global collaboration in science with many nations working on the same facility. ITER will follow on this path, taking note from the lessons learnt at CERN, of how collaboration is achieved at a political and academic level but also how to create a multicultural workforce that succeeds in blending the input of each participant for the benefit of the whole.

I look forward to a long and mutually beneficial collaboration between CERN and ITER and wish you every success with the scientific adventure that is about to start.

Kaname Ikeda
ITER Director-General

Read the Message to ITER from Rolf Heuer on the ITER Newsline