French firms display their technical know-how at CERN
Thirty-six French companies presented their latest technological advances to the CERN community during the industrial exhibition "La France au CERN", held on 7–9 June.
The exhibition displayed products and technologies specifically related to activities at CERN and also featured several seminars. UBIFRANCE, the French Agency for International Business Development, which is responsible for promoting French technologies and know-how abroad, organized the event, and PSA Peugeot/Citroen sponsored the event.
The inauguration took place in the presence of Rolf Heuer, director-general of CERN, together with Catherine Cesarsky, the French high-commissioner for atomic energy, Michel Spiro, president of CERN Council, and Jean Baptiste Mattei from the French permanent mission at the UN in Geneva.
The next such exhibition, "Netherlands at CERN", will be held in November.
School children are inspired by project to 'Draw me a physicist'
In a child's imagination, scientists are colourful, slightly eccentric figures with unusual powers. This is what emerged from Dessine-moi un physicien (Draw me a physicist), an exhibition that brought together 160 drawings and definitions by children in the region close to CERN. The exhibition was the result of a 6-month-long project by CERN and 20 primary school classes from the Pays de Gex in France and the communes of Meyrin, Satigny and Vernier in Switzerland
Some 400 schoolchildren aged 9 to 11 were asked to make drawings and come up with definitions of a physicist. Subsequently they came to CERN to see things for themselves and talk to some real physicists. They used the information garnered during the visit to make a second drawing and write a second definition. Each class or school then selected eight pairs of drawings for the exhibition in CERN's Globe of Science and Innovation. The exhibition was inaugurated by CERN's director-general, Rolf Heuer, on 14 June and lasted until 23 June. Members of CERN Council also had a chance to visit the exhibition on 17 June.
• To view all of the drawings, visit the website http://dessine-moi-un-physicien.web.cern.ch/dessine-moi-un-physicien/.