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CERN approves Pakistan application for associate membership
[September 22, 2014]

CERN approves Pakistan application for associate membership


(Baluchistan Express, The Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) Council in its meeting has unanimously approved the application of Pakistan for the associate membership.

Now the only practical step in associate membership remaining is signing of official document which will be done during the visit of Director General CERN to Pakistan.

The visit is being expected in last quarter of this year. The application from Pakistan for the associate membership was submitted one and half year back, in February 2013.

Located on the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland, CERN conducts some of the most complex scientific experiments of all-time in a bid to understand the structure of the universe. It is the birthplace of the World Wide Web and is home to the world's largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).



CERN is the topmost particle physics laboratory in the world and the LHC, its brainchild, is the largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, credited with the discovery of the Higgs Boson.

CERN members include 21 countries mostly from Europe. CERN has three associate members and five observer states.


Earlier in February this year a four-member high level CERN Technical Team (CTT) led by CERN's Director for Research and Scientific Computing Dr Sergio Bertolucci visited Pakistan as part of the evaluation process for the Associate Membership (AM) of CERN for Pakistan.

Besides holding meetings with the authorities concerned, the team also held meetings with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to discuss the relevant issues. CTT assessed and evaluated the scientific, educational, engineering and industrial activities being undertaken in Pakistan.

The team also visited several universities, scientific organisations and industrial units in the country during its visit. Director Scientific Research Sergio Bertolucci submitted CTT report to CERN Council declaring that Pakistan fits the criteria to become an associate member of the organization.

The status of associate member is also the pre-stage to full membership. As an associate member, Pakistan would be entitled to attend open and restricted sessions of the CERN Council, topmost decision making body.

After becoming associate member there are numerous benefits including staff positions for scientists and engineers, access to various educational programs (summer student, doctoral student and technical student), engineering contracts for Pakistani industry.

It would also help in technology transfer in key areas of accelerator technology, radiofrequency (RF) technology, development of magnets, ion beam optics, cryogenics.

The associate membership will open the doors of mega science experiments for Pakistani scientists and will also allow Pakistani industry to participate in bids for CERN contracts across various sectors.

As CERN is known to outsource its demand for mechanical and electronic equipment, Pakistani companies will be able to cater to the organisation's demands individually by picking up tenders advertised by CERN, which will help our industry and economy.

Pakistan is already contributing to CERN projects including designing detection technology and providing personnel support for the LHC's maintenance. Associate membership could take the level of collaboration up a notch.

High-energy physicists and engineers from Pakistan mainly from the Pakistan Atomic energy Commission (PAEC), NUST, CIIT, GIKI, QAU and National Centre for Physics (NCP) have been participating in experiments at CERN since 1994.

The physics group from NCP joined the CMS experiment in 1999 contributing hardware for this experiment and manufacturing of RPC indigenously, making major contributions to core hardware and participating in important physics analyses including Higgs discovery.

Most recently CIIT has joined another LHC experiment called ALICE where important contributions in the development of silicon technology are made by CIIT scientists.

The NCP had become an LHC Computing Grid node in 2004, which enabled it to receive data from LHC experiments. Researchers will gain access to an invaluable learning component that cannot be learnt anywhere else with the help of grid node data.

Local physicists believe that a stronger association with CERN will win Pakistan greater access to experimental data from the LHC and will allow local companies to manufacture electronic equipment for the top research facility.

Furthermore, individuals who work on various problems at CERN would receive exposure to good technical practices, which would create job opportunities for Pakistani researchers.

Some 10,000 visiting scientists from over 113 countries - half of the world's particle physicists - come to CERN for their research.

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