New CERN boss promises progress in the 17-billion dollar super collider

New CERN boss promises progress in the 17-billion dollar super collider

The British particle physicist Mark Thomson was named as the new head of CERN, the European particle physicist in Geneva, Switzerland.

As General Director of Cern, Thomson is confronted with great challenges, including an uncertain political environment in the course of the war in Ukraine, which the laboratory has caused, to cancel the government relationships with Russia . In addition, he becomes a fluctuating agreement via the Future Circular Collider (FCC) have to restore a new 90-kilometer long tunnel that is to be used for the most important experiments of the laboratory by the end of the century. The German government, the largest contribution payer of CERN, this year expressed skepticism compared to the project , and China could occur with a similar project .

Thomson is very familiar: in the 1990s he worked on an important experiment and helped to discover the high-high boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)-the most powerful particle accelerator in the world-together with the current general director Fabiola Gianotti. He is currently chairman of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, a British support agency, and represents his country in the Cern Council, the committee that the laboratory monitors on behalf of its member countries. Thomson will take his position as general director at the end of 2025 when Gianotti's second consecutive five -year term ends.

In a press conference on November 7, both Gianotti and Thomson emphasized the need for continuity and the importance of the current 1.5 billion euro upgrades of the 27 -kilometer LHC. Thomson also confirmed Gianotti's commitment to the construction of the FCC: "I very much agree with the vision of the current DG," he told reporters.

The former President of the Cern-Rat, Ursula Bassler, is optimistic about Thomson's appointment. "He is someone who appreciates what the FCC can bring for CERN, but also knows the concerns of some people," says Bassler, who is the particle physicist and scientific director at the French National Institute for Core and Party Physics in Paris. "I think he will act very transparently to make a decision."

Thomson will be the first British physicist since the 1990s that leads the organization. In addition to his work on the LHC, he was also a co -responsible and spokesman for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, which is currently being built in Illinois and South Dakota.