CERN

CERN

Subject : Science & tech

Context :Indian physicist and Padma Shri recipient Prof Rohini Godbole talked about her journey from studying physics in Pune to her current position as a particle physicist best known for her work at CERN.

Concept :

• European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) is world’s largest nuclear and particle physics laboratory.
• It is situated in North West suburbs of Geneva on France-Swiss Border.
• Members: It has 22 member states, four associate member states (including India and Pakistan) and three International Organisations have observer status.

Functions:

• The laboratory helps scientists and engineers probing fundamental structure of Universe using the most sophisticated scientific instruments and advanced computing systems
• Provide the necessary infrastructure needed for high-energy physics research including particle accelerators.

Achievements:

• CERN operates the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator.
• It is associated with the discovery of the Higgs Boson which is popularly known as the God particle.
• Indian scientists has been active in construction of the LHC in the areas of design, development and supply of hardware accelerator components, software development and deployment in the machine.
• They also had played significant role in the CMS (Compact Muon Experiment), one of the two large experiments that led to discovery of God particle.