

CERN turns 60 - dnetesn
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/september-2014/cern-turns-60

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Create
Pensions which will be applicable to new recruits as of 1 January 2012; the
Management and CERN Council adopted without any concertation and decided in
June 2011 to adopt very unfavourable mesures for new recruits.

[http://www.gac-
epa.org/History/Bulletins/42-2012-04/Bulletin...](http://www.gac-
epa.org/History/Bulletins/42-2012-04/Bulletin42-en.html)

The communication protocols war raged in Europe from 1983 to 1992. Most
governments opposed internet technology, backing instead nascent ISO
networking standards. CERN’s decision to migrate to internet was heavily
criticized by TCP/IP opponents.

In Geneva, the very first meeting of the Coordinating Committee for
Intercontinental Research Network (CCIRN) was in May 1988. This committee was
the first attempt to harmonize the inter-regional operation of the emerging
world-wide research network.

The second meeting took place in October 1988 at a summer resort in Western
Virginia, sad and grey this particular autumn. The Americans turned up in
force. Bill Bostwick, from the Department of Energy was the Chairman, Barry
Leiner from the Department of Defense and Vint Cerf were present. The European
representatives were thin on the ground: a German and British representative
plus Francois Flückiger.

In 1991, 80% of the internet capacity in Europe for international traffic was
installed at CERN, in building 513.

From 1985 to 1988, as CERN's first official "TCP/IP Co-ordinator", Segal was
responsible for coordinating the introduction of the Internet protocols within
CERN.

This router was one of two installed at CERN in 1987; they are thought to have
been the first Cisco routers in Switzerland and possibly the first in Europe.
We begin therefore where they are determined not to end, with the question
whether any form of democratic self-government, anywhere, is consistent with
the kind of massive, pervasive, surveillance into which the Unites States
government has led not only us but the world.

This should not actually be a complicated inquiry.

The numbers make the problem clear. In 2007, the year before CERN first
powered up the LHC, the lab produced 142 master's and Ph.D. theses, according
to the lab's document server. Last year it produced 327. (Fermilab chipped in
54.) That abundance seems unlikely to vanish anytime soon, as last year ATLAS
had 1000 grad students and CMS had 900.

In contrast, the INSPIRE Web site, a database for particle physics, currently
lists 124 postdocs worldwide in experimental high-energy physics, the sort of
work LHC grads have trained for.

The situation is equally difficult for postdocs trying to make the jump to a
junior faculty position or a permanent job at a national lab. The Snowmass
Young Physicists survey received responses from 956 early-career researchers,
including 343 postdocs. But INSPIRE currently lists just 152 "junior"
positions, including 61 in North America. And the supply of jobs isn't likely
to increase, says John Finley, an astrophysicist at Purdue University in West
Lafayette, Indiana, who is leading a search to replace two senior particle
physicists.

"How should we make it attractive for them [young people] to spend 5,6,7 years
in our field, be satisfied, learn about excitement, but finally be qualified
to find other possibilities?" \-- H. Schopper

Indeed, even while giving complete satisfaction, they have no forward vision
about the possibility of pursuing a career at CERN.

This lack of an element of social responsibility in the contract policy is
unacceptable. Rather than serve as a cushion of laziness for supervisors, who
often have only a limited and utilitarian view when defining the opening of an
IC post, the contract policy must ensure the inclusion of an element of social
justice, which is cruelly absent today.

[http://staff-
association.web.cern.ch/content/unsatisfactory-...](http://staff-
association.web.cern.ch/content/unsatisfactory-contract-policy)

Potential missing staff in some areas is a separate issue, and educational
programmes are not designed to make up for it. On-the-job learning and
training are not separated but dynamically linked together, benefiting to both
parties. In my three years of operation, I have unfortunately witnessed cases
where CERN duties and educational training became contradictory and even
conflicting.

[http://ombuds.web.cern.ch/blog/2013/06/lets-not-confuse-
stud...](http://ombuds.web.cern.ch/blog/2013/06/lets-not-confuse-students-and-
fellows-missing-staff)

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LordHumungous
I worked at CERN for a summer in college as a physics major. It was one of the
formative experiences of my life. I remember getting drunk with a bunch of
Iranians and Europeans, and sneaking in the middle of the night into the old
abandoned particle accelerator tunnels from the 1950's.

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pjmlp
I had the pleasure to spend a few years there. Quite interesting experience.

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DanKlinton
I hope ITER reaches CERN success

