CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) Task Force consisting of five experts is conducting meetings with different entities in Pakistan to review Associate Membership of Pakistan for another five years. Pakistan became an Associate Member of CERN on July 31, 2015 and is contributing to CERN projects including detector technology, heavy mechanical parts fabrication and providing technical support. PAEC is the lead agency for PAK-CERN collaboration. Other institutes from Pakistan, which have been participating, are NCP, COMSATS, PINSTECH and other universities.
CERN is the premier scientific laboratory established by 20 European Member states in Geneva on the principle of “Science for Peace”. It has now evolved as the world’s largest Particle Physics laboratory with 23 Members, ten Associate Members and six observers.
Purpose of CERN is to unravel the frontiers of knowledge and the secrets after the Big Bang; develop new technologies for accelerators and detectors; train scientists and engineers for the future; and unite people from different countries and cultures. Five years of Pakistan’s Associate Membership were completed in July 2020. CERN council designated a task force and decided to carry out a five-year review of Associate Membership of Pakistan with CERN virtually from March 7-18, 2022, due to the COVID pandemic.
The one day meeting was postponed due to an extraordinary call session of the CERN council on the Russian-Ukraine conflict. The postponed session will now be conducted on April 19, 2022. Virtual meetings of CERN Task Force members with Pakistani delegates were held at length at PAEC Headquarters, said a news release issued here. Chairman PAEC, Muhammad Naeem welcomed all CERN Task Force members for virtual meetings with different entities in Pakistan and elaborated millstones of PAK-CERN collaboration.
On March 18, 2022, CERN Task Force members also had a virtual meeting with Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Shibli Faraz.