Cern opens membership to the rest of the world

Cost and traditional rivalry means US unlikely to be full member

The council of the European particle physics laboratory, Cern, has voted to allow any country in the world to apply for full membership, consolidating its status as the leading international facility of its kind.

Cyprus, Israel, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey have applied to become full members. But a 390-million euro price tag is likely to deter the US from coming aboard.

Until now ‘full’ membership of Cern has been limited to European countries. The US, Russia and Japan have ‘observer’ status, which allows them to construct and run experiments, and attend—but not vote at—council meetings.

In an effort to recognise “increasing globalization in particle physics,” the council ruled on 18 June to allow non-European members to join and also replaced observer status with a new category of associate member, costing 10 per cent of the price of full membership.

US researchers already represent the largest national group at Cern, making up 1,609 out of some 10,000 physicists and engineers. Even as an observer, the US has contributed more than 420m euros towards individual experiments, but does not pay for core funding of Cern or the Large Hadron Collider.

Cern’s 20 member states contribute to the central budget as a proportion of their gross national income—but no one country is allowed to pay more than 25 per cent of Cern’s costs. In 2009, Germany was the largest donor, contributing 144m euros, just less than 20 per cent of the total, followed by France and the UK. If the US were to apply for full membership the bill would be 390m euros, based on 2009 figures.

US full membership is unlikely, according to Cern spokesman James Gillies. “No-one [from the US] is expressing that interest and the agreement that we have with the US runs for a number of years,” he said in an interview with Research Europe.

“I think it’s far more likely that if the US decides they want to continue to work with Cern, which I think is quite probable, they would go for associate membership,” Gillies said. This would have the US contributing at the level of Austria and Switzerland.

Sources close to the US Department of Energy also agree that associate membership is more likely as the US will want to retain an independent identity as a particle physics nation—and not be seen as part of a European-led club.

International particle physics is best served by the US retaining a strong national programme while “collaborating wholeheartedly” in outside projects, adds Chris Quigg, a professor in theoretical physics at the US Fermi National Laboratory in Illinois. The US and Cern, moreover, are rivals to host the LHC’s planned successor, the International Linear Collider.

Steve Ellis, a professor in particle physics at the University of Washington, Seattle, says the US particle physics community does support a more formal relationship with Cern. “[Cern] will surely be a primary focus of research in particle physics on the 10-year-plus time scale,” he says. But in the current fiscal climate, new money will not be easy to find.

Cern may be opening up to the world, but it plans to retain its European spirit, adds Gillies. The council agreed to recognise “the importance of respecting the European foundation and maintaining the European character of Cern” and ensure the majority of member states remain European.

A delighted president of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, Daniel Kajfman, told Research Europe: “We’ve been involved with Cern for many years, contributing equipment, people and knowledge. So that’s no different to any European country. Given the size of financial and human investment needed to run a facility like this, this is needed. If you really want to go to the next generation you need more people sharing the load, both financially and intellectually speaking.”