CERN is the world\'s largest research centre for particle physics. "Research concerns a number of issues, including the laws of physics just after the Big Bang" - said the President of the CERN Council, Prof. Agnieszka Zalewska from the Institute of Nuclear Physics PAS. See explained that the CERN budget is fixed at about 1 billion Swiss francs a year, and Poland contributes about 3 percent of this amount - the contribution amount is proportional to the GDP of the country and varies depending on economic factors. In proportion to the amount of the contribution, for each country the CERN determines the amount of contracts for companies in this country and various privileges, such as the number of students admitted to summer courses at CERN, funded by CERN.
Among about 7 thousand CERN users from member countries, about 270 are Polish. "These people most of the time work in Poland, they come to CERN to do certain jobs and return to their home institutes. We have about sixty salaried employees at CERN - a little less than would result from our percentage. On the other hand, we are significantly exceeding our percentage share in the category of temporary contracts for young physicists and engineers" - revealed Prof. Zalewska.
"I think that Poland is quite clearly visible at CERN. We owe it to the long tradition of particle physics" - said the researcher. She reminded that CERN was established already in 1954. Due to political reasons Poland was not a member of this organization at the time, but first Polish physicists began to come to CERN in the late 1950s and 1960s. Zalewska attributes this early Polish cooperation with CERN to the "founding fathers" of Polish particle physics - Marian Danysz, Marian Mięsowicz and Jerzy Pniewski.
Already in the 1960s, whole teams of Polish researchers were working on compiling the data from CERN, and theorists supported theoretical work. "Later we started taking part in more ambitious projects. Financial contribution of Poland was out of the question, so we gave the contribution of another type" - said Zalewska and explained that Poles were building the equipment or, for example, a large part of the calorimeter for the DELPHI experiment, using Polish lead. "It was valued and accounted for the financial contribution equivalent" - the professor explained.
Poland became a member of CERN in 1991, Since then, Polish companies can count on contracts with CERN. Initially there were problems with the management of contracts. "But for a few years now we are a fully balanced country, we even have been receiving more than that would result from our contribution. This cannot continue in the long run, so this year our contracts have been cut off to offset the balance" - said Prof. Zalewska.
In addition, Polish engineering teams worked on the commissioning of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), performed repairs after its failure, and now they are working on the LHC modernization, which will increase its energy. "In total it is hundreds of man-years of work. And not a dish-washing job at that, it is the work for highly skilled people, giving additional opportunities for professional development. This is a way to train people who later return to Poland to institutes, industry, and work on other projects" - the researcher told PAP.
"But the most important thing for physicists is science" - admitted the researcher. She noted that a total of more than 100 Poles have authored and co-authored publications resulting from the work on the LHC experiments. "And authors have to meet strict requirements. This shows that a large part of the Polish particle physics community are now working for the LHC experiments and do valuable things there" - she said.
Zalewska also listed the achievements in the field of theoretical physics - both precise calculations needed for the comparison of theory and experience, as well as the development of theories beyond the Standard Model. "I feel that we have some pretty good achievements" - she said.
Zalewska mentioned that Polish physicists held important positions at CERN. For example, Prof. Michał Turała of the Institute of Nuclear Physics PAS was head of a division and chaired one of the scientific committees, Prof. Ewa Rondio of the National Centre for Nuclear Research was a member of CERN Directorate Office, and Prof. Ryszard Sosnowski of the National Centre for Nuclear Research was Vice-President of the CERN Council. Four Polish physicists were members of the Scientific Policy Committee of the CERN Council, and further seven Poles were members of other substantive CERN committees. Poles had too important roles in the coordination, physical analysis, construction of detectors at CERN. For example, Prof. Elżbieta Richter-Wąs from the Jagiellonian University was the Higgs physics group coordinator in the ATLAS experiment for several years. Other Polish achievements named by the President of the CERN Council include organizing last fall an international symposium in Kraków, which was an important event in the definition of the European Strategy for Particle Physics.
"It is also worth noting that the CERN Council selected the Polish Supreme Audit Office as the external auditor of the Organization for 2013-2015" - added President of the CERN Council.
PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland, Ludwika Tomala
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