Iceland warms up to CERN
In terms of climate, Iceland is not as cold as it sounds, since it is a large volcanic island; and in terms of science, the country has developed a highly educated and competitive society, despite its remoteness. It now spends more than 3% of its gross national product on R&D, exceeding the goal that the European Union aims to achieve by 2010.
Iceland is also a place of extremes for many other reasons. For example, it is Europe's second-largest island, yet its population is less than that of the Swiss canton of Geneva, where CERN was founded; and just like the University of Geneva, or for that matter CERN, the University of Iceland attracts students and scientists from all over the world.
In 1996, the government of Iceland signed a Co-operation Agreement with CERN to ensure long-term opportunities for the country's physicists to participate in its research projects and unique laboratory facilities. Since then several Icelandic scientists and engineers have worked there.
More recently, encouraged by ambassador Stefan Haukur Jóhannesson, Iceland's representative to the United Nations in Geneva, a CERN delegation visited the Iceland University in Reykjavik and met government representatives. Their aim was to put new life into the Iceland-CERN co-operation. This visit coincided with a Workshop of the NorduGrid Consortium that was held in Reykjavik with the participation of particle physicists from northern Europe.
The CERN delegation and their Icelandic hosts agreed to promote more scientific exchanges, starting by encouraging Icelandic students to participate in CERN's summer student programme; to stimulate contacts between material scientists from Iceland and their colleagues collaborating in relevant R&D projects at CERN (e.g. RD-39, RD-50); and to invite Icelandic scientists to consider joining the (predominantly northern European) community performing experiments at CERN's ISOLDE facility.
Israel increases participation in LHC
On 29 November 2004, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Office at Geneva, Itzhak Levanon, and CERN's director-general, Robert Aymar, signed a new protocol to the Co-operation Agreement between the government of Israel and CERN. This protocol covers a substantial increase in the Israeli contribution to CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Project. Israeli scientists have been participating in CERN's scientific activities since 1960, and in 1992 Israel became the first non-member state to make regular financial contributions to CERN's budget.
Julius Wess 70th birthday celebration, Munich
A meeting on 10-11 January at the Max Planck Institute in Munich, to celebrate the 70th birthday of Julius Wess, was attended by physicists from around the world, including Japan, Russia, and the US. Speakers included Bruno Zumino, co-proposer with Wess of supersymmetry (in the West), evidence for which might be discovered at the Large Hadron Collider. Many other talks were given by Wess's former students who are themselves renowned physicists. Wess is pictured with Carola Reinke, secretary of the theory group at the institute.