Directing a decade

What would you say were CERN’s scientific and technological highlights of the past 10 years?

I would start by highlighting the excellent performance of the accelerator complex, the experiments and the computing infrastructure, all of which have gone well beyond forecasts. Thanks to these achievements, and to the increasing sophistication of the data analyses, the Laboratory’s scientific output has far surpassed what one could have anticipated, both in breadth and depth. The diversity of results across all our facilities is impressive, and physics sensitivities have exceeded even the most optimistic expectations. Notably, some studies originally foreseen for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) phase are already being carried out today.

Secondly, the approval of the HL-LHC by the CERN Council in June 2016 marked a major milestone for the future of the LHC programme, and paved the way for substantial progress in upgrading both the accelerator complex and the experiments. As a first step, the successful Long Shutdown 2, carried out during the challenging COVID-19 period, enabled significant upgrades to the injectors and the completion of the Phase-1 upgrades of the four experiments.

Following the establishment of the Physics Beyond Colliders (PBC) Study Group in 2016, we have strengthened the Laboratory’s programme of physics complementary to the LHC, notably with the approval of new experiments and projects such as FASER, SND@LHC and a high-intensity beam-dump facility at the North Area. The Neutrino Platform has remained a focal point for the neutrino community in Europe and beyond, enabling key detector R&D, technology demonstration and prototyping activities, as well as the construction of two large cryostats for the DUNE experiment at the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility in the United States.

The extraordinary work towards the Future Circular Collider (FCC) over the past 10 years, culminating in the highly successful Feasibility Study, laid the foundations for a brilliant long-term future for CERN and the field, and served as a key input to the ongoing update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics. In December 2025, the European Strategy Group recommended the FCC-ee as the next flagship facility at CERN, a pivotal step for the future of particle physics. Chapeau to the entire CERN community for these extraordinary achievements!

You were CERN’s first female Director-General. When you first took on the role, did you find the focus on your gender a bit frustrating?

I cannot say that I found it frustrating. What surprised me was that people would tell me I was a role model. I did not consider myself a model of anything, so I was somewhat embarrassed by that description. But then I told myself that, if the fact that a woman held the position of CERN Director-General could encourage young women to pursue a career in science, I was happy to play that role.

Did your experience as Director-General differ from what you expected?

From the outset, it was an extraordinary experience, far broader than I had expected. I had to deal with a myriad of matters: not only scientific and technical ones, but also finances and human resources, environment and sustainability, relationships with governments, the public and the media, as well as the daily management of a laboratory as complex as CERN.

The extraordinary work towards the FCC has laid the foundations for a brilliant long-term future for CERN

Fortunately, I was surrounded by an excellent management team of directors, department heads and project leaders, and could count on the support, competence, enthusiasm and dedication of the entire CERN community. I am very grateful to the CERN Member States for the unique opportunity to serve as Director-General for two terms, and for their sustained support and trust throughout the 10 years.

There is one thing I would never have imagined I would need to do: raise substantial funding from the private sector. As a physicist, that was entirely outside my experience…

Despite that, you announced one billion US dollars of private funding for FCC shortly before the end of your tenure. How did you approach donations?

When I started my first term as CERN Director-General, I had no experience whatsoever with donations. I had not raised a single penny in my entire life!

I remember that, in the context of the Science Gateway, I considered hiring a professional fundraiser at some point. But then I realised that the salaries of these people were astronomical, so I abandoned the idea.

Over the years, I learned a lot from experience. I learned that fundraising is very much a matter of personal connections, and I was lucky enough to have some very good ones before becoming CERN Director-General. I also learned that donors love bold, ambitious projects like the FCC, projects that enable major progress for humanity. Finally, donors engage if they trust the institution, in this case CERN, but also if they trust the person. I think they trusted me.

What made you decide to pursue private donations, and how did the policy framework for accepting them come about?

Both the Science Gateway and FCC are extremely challenging projects in their respective areas. I quickly realised that projects of this kind can only be achieved with exceptional levels – and therefore sources – of funding.

The Science Gateway was a dream I had from the beginning of my first term, in 2016. At the time, I realised we could host 150,000 visitors annually, compared with 300,000 requests. That seemed a shame to me. The limitation came from the number of visitor areas, which led to the idea of a new building – a dedicated space that could expand our offer to the public. CERN’s budget provides only limited funding for education, communication and outreach initiatives, and the money raised annually through the CERN & Society Foundation was far from enough to cover a 100-million-Swiss-franc project. So we had to undertake a dedicated fundraising campaign.

The Science Gateway was a dream I had from the beginning of my first term

Then we obtained a 48-million-US-dollar donation from the “Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation” for the “Next Generation Triggers” project, which primarily supports the development of AI-based algorithms for the high-level triggers of ATLAS and CMS at the HL-LHC. It was the first donation ever made to the CERN budget for a scientific project, and prompted us to develop a policy for this type of contribution. The policy was approved by the CERN Council in December 2024. It provides a robust set of principles and boundaries to harness the potential benefits from private funding while safeguarding the integrity and independence of the CERN scientific programme. I had already begun discussions with potential donors regarding the FCC, and the policy provided a framework for those efforts.

The FCC is an unprecedented project, and it has always been clear to me that the two traditional sources of funding for CERN projects, contributions from Member and Non-Member States, would not suffice. We consequently decided to explore two avenues that are innovative for our field: the European Commission and private donors. Concerning the former, the FCC was the first on a list of potential “Moonshot” projects in the draft Multiannual Financial Framework for the 2028–2034 period, along with a substantial dedicated budget line. As for the latter, we received pledges totalling one billion US dollars from philanthropists in the United States and Europe. I am deeply grateful to them for their generosity, vision and commitment to fundamental research.

I would like to emphasise that the main source of CERN funding has been, is, and must remain the regular contributions from the Member and Associate Member States to the CERN annual budget. Private donations are extremely valuable, but they can never replace the long-term funding stability that these contributions provide, which has been one of the key reasons for CERN’s success over the decades.

How did you handle periods of crisis?

The key was teamwork, one of CERN’s strongest assets at all levels. As Director-General, I always drew on people’s strengths, and I was fortunate enough to work with extremely talented and dedicated collaborators across the entire Organisation. I should also mention that the knowledge of CERN and the experience I accumulated over 30 years as a member of staff proved particularly helpful during those challenging periods.

So we faced crises, from the COVID-19 pandemic to the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the high inflation and energy prices of 2023, in true CERN style: by working together. In the decision-making phase, different experts brought their perspectives, concerns and solutions to the table. In the implementation of measures, the relevant services, departments and units deployed their technical expertise. The approach was always collective. Of course, as Director-General, I had to take the final decision, and sometimes that was tough, especially in the context of budget cuts. But those decisions were always well-informed, grounded in collective thinking and shared expertise.

The serious crises we have experienced over the past 10 years have clearly highlighted the strength and resilience of CERN as an institution and of its community.

Do you think science can still be a force for peace?

Absolutely, because science is universal and unifying. Universal, because it is based on objective facts, the laws of nature, and not on opinions. An apple falls in the same way, whether it falls in Isaac Newton’s garden in 17th-century England, or today in Switzerland, China or the United States. Unifying, because the thirst for knowledge and the desire to understand how things work are intrinsic to humanity. Thus, science has no passport, belief or gender, and can help connect people in our fractured world.

There is no way to address today’s global challenges without science

In this context, the role of CERN is emblematic. It was founded in 1954, amid the ruins of the Second World War, at a turning point in history, with the dual aim of restoring the continent’s scientific excellence and promoting peaceful collaboration among Europe’s countries and peoples through science. Today, CERN is not only a world-class scientific facility and the world leader in high-energy particle physics: it is a value system, embracing and promoting knowledge, innovation, training and education, collaboration across borders, inclusion, diversity and open science.

Institutions like CERN show what humanity can achieve when we set aside our disputes and work together for the common good. They give us hope for a better world and are more relevant today than ever.

Does CERN have a responsibility to guide the world in new technologies such as AI?

I do not think that CERN’s role is to lead the world in the development of new technologies. Our primary mission is fundamental research, and we develop advanced technologies, in collaboration with our partner institutes in the Member States and beyond, insofar as they are necessary to achieve our scientific objectives.

Machine learning and other AI techniques have been used at CERN for many years, and have proven to be valuable tools in a wide range of applications, from accelerator operation to increasing the sensitivity of physics analyses. However, I do not consider it part of our mission to conduct research in AI as a goal in itself. CERN will, of course, need to develop those aspects of AI that are specific to our field when suitable solutions do not already exist. But we should neither reinvent existing solutions nor transform ourselves into a laboratory dedicated to developing all interesting technologies for their own sake.

What are you planning to do next?

I plan to return to active research, at least for part of my time. I have always loved all areas of physics, but the Higgs boson is particularly intriguing and very close to my heart. We have learned a great deal over the past 14 years, yet this key particle remains quite mysterious. There is a rich, compelling and exciting programme of studies ahead at the HL-LHC and, potentially, at the FCC-ee.

I also plan to continue promoting science in other contexts, including as a member of the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum. I believe there is no way to address today’s global challenges, from health to climate change, without science.