The CERN Courier is not exclusively CERN’s. Its subtitle “International Journal of High-Energy Physics” stands as a friendly warning to all those readers who might otherwise think it is an official mouthpiece of the CERN laboratory. As the new editor, I share my predecessor’s vision (and hope) of producing a magazine that will interest and stimulate the entire high-energy physics community across the world.
Image credit: Cian O’Luanaigh 2015.
Over the last decade, the community has expanded to encompass physicists from many different areas – not just accelerator physics and not just from CERN. Today, the high-energy frontier is being explored not only by particle physicists but also by astrophysicists, cosmologists, astroparticle physicists and neutrino physicists. We use accelerators such as the unique LHC, but also satellites and detectors installed on the International Space Station. The hard-won results of physicists worldwide are increasingly a collaborative effort, where the boundaries between the various sub-disciplines have faded to nothing.
Our ambition must be to follow the natural evolution of the high-energy physics community and continue to be its magazine for years to come. How will we achieve this? You might have already noticed a few small changes in the November issue. A first visible change is this “Viewpoint”. Up until the October issue, it could be found at the end of the issue. Now it has been placed at the start, and its role has changed from that of an opinion piece to being the opening article intended to grab the reader’s attention. Is it working? Are you reading it? Please let me know. Although this is probably the first time that we have appealed for feedback directly in these pages, the fact that the CERN Courier is open to contributions and feedback from the wider community is far from new. From when the magazine was first published online, the “Contact us” webpage has stated the following, in French and English: “CERN Courier welcomes contributions from the international high-energy physics community. These can be written in English or French, and will be published in the same language. If you have a suggestion for an article, please send your proposal to the editor.”
In other words, for many years we have been eager to hear from you. And, indeed, you have communicated with us and given your feedback, and we have published your work, your professional ambitions, and your points of view. We have been part of your life and you have been part of ours. Many thanks for that. And what does the future hold? The CERN Courier will continue to bring you its authoritative insight into scientific information; it will continue to keep you abreast of developments at CERN and other laboratories worldwide; it will continue to bring you the very best images and, where possible, the very best video clips (yes, purely “sciency” videos, produced exclusively for the CERN Courier, see “A close look at the world’s largest astronomical project” of this issue) and other multimedia material.
Being an editor of a (still) printed publication in 2015 is no easy task. Out there in the world, information flows fast. Here, at the CERN Courier, we still take time to do things properly. As Christine Sutton, the previous editor, said in her “Viewpoint” in the November issue, our ambition is to take you “behind the headlines” and bring you the real protagonists with their full stories. The CERN Courier has the space, and that space is for you.
Let me take this opportunity to thank all of our regular contributors. Most of them have collaborated with us on a voluntary basis for many years and are the backbone of the magazine. Their profiles, together with that of our new “Bookshelf” editor, Virginia Greco, are available at cerncourier.com/cws/our-team. Obviously, the magazine would not exist without the hundreds of contributors worldwide who send us their texts, be they a feature article or a short piece for “Faces & Places”. A big thank you to everyone.
The CERN Courier adventure continues.
