On September 20, 2012 the president of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva, the world’s largest laboratory for particle physics, was elected. Polish woman – Prof Agnieszka Zalewska from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of Polish Academy of Science will hold the office from January 1, 2013. She is the first chairwoman of the CERN Council coming from central east Europe, and the first woman who took over this function.
She is a specialist in the field of high energy physics, researcher of neutrinos and dark matter. For many years, she has participated in several researches at CERN, as well as worked for the committees of the center.
„The coming years will be exciting, but also challenging, because we prepare the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) to work at higher energy, moreover, we would like to implement the updated European strategy for particle physics” – said Prof. Zalewska. “CERN and the council are the only priority for me” – she added.
CERN research center existing since 1954 was the first joint European initiative, which has become a model of international cooperation. Right now, 20 European countries belong to CERN and more than 8000 scientists, technicians, engineers and administrative staff representing 80 different nationalities are employed in CERN. Among them, there are more than 230 scientists and engineers from Poland. The greatest achievements of CERN are the discovery of neutral currents and the invention of web pages.
On July 4, 2012 the scientists from CERN announced another scientific breakthrough – they identified a new elementary particle that might be Higgs particle, which has been seeking after for many years.
Poland acquired the status of full CERN member in 1991. It was the first western organisation that adopted Poland after the political changes in Europe.
Source: http://www.naukawpolsce.pap.pl/
Photo © CERN