GENEVA, JANUARY 23 – The Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Manlio Di Stefano, met with CERN Director General, Dr. Fabiola Gianotti during a visit to the the largest laboratory wolrdwide for Particle Physics. Created in 1952, CERN has now 22 Member States.
Today’s meeting provided with an opportunity for touching upon present and future projects of the Laboratory and to highlight the important contribution of Italian scientists to the success of the research at CERN.
Di Stefano had a chance to visit the Atlas experiment at LHC. In 2012, the Atlas experiment, together with the CMS experiment, discovered the Higgs Boson. Besides being a founding member, Italy plays a very important role in the lab: it is the 4th largest contributor, it has the largest community of users and Italian staff occupy roles at the top levels in the Organization: besides Gianotti, Italy provided two of the Director Generals, the highest office of the organization: Carlo Rubbia and Luciano Maiani.
Today, over 300 out of a total of 2,500 staff scientist are Italian. Three out of the 4 large LHC experiments are currently coordinated by Italian physicists: Federico Antinori for ALICE, Roberto Carlin for CMS and Giovanni Passaleva for LHCB. (@OnuItalia)
