Visits
Google vice-president, Vint Cerf (left) visited CERN on 26 February. He toured the ATLAS experimental cavern with ATLAS spokesperson, Peter Jenni (right) and visited the CERN Computer Centre, where he attended a presentation on the LCG project, before giving a colloquium in the main auditorium.
Mariastella Gelmini, the Italian minister of education, university and research (left) visited CERN on 11 March. She toured the CMS experiment accompanied by Guido Tonelli, CMS deputy spokesperson (right) and also visited the ATLAS experiment and the LHC tunnel. After returning to the surface she met with Italian scientists and signed the CERN guest book.
On 16 March HRH princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand (centre right) came to CERN for the third time. She toured the CMS experiment and LHC tunnel with Emmanuel Tsesmelis (far left) from the CERN directorate office; Jim Virdee (centre left) CMS spokesperson; and Felicitas Pauss, CERN co-ordinator for external relations. She also had discussions with the Education Group and visited the CERN Computing Centre.
Just as the block-buster with a CERN theme, Angels & Demons, was about to be released, another film director came to CERN in search of locations for a forthcoming film. Cédric Klapisch, seen here with Corinne Pralavorio of the Communication Group, is probably best known for L'auberge Espagnol, about a French student who spends a year in Spain under the Erasmus European exchange programme. He is the son of Robert Klapisch, a physicist and former director of research at CERN.