Director-general of CERN due Apr 7

Director general of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), Prof Rolf-Dieter Heuer will arrive in the city on April 7 on a two-day visit, said a handout. Prof Rolf-Dieter Heuer will attend the convocation of Dhaka University (DU) on April 7 as a speaker. DU will also give him an honorary Doctor of Science degree on the occasion. Later on, he will attend a discussion with scientists, researchers, engineers, academics and students of the country at the Sir Nawab Ali Senate Bhaban. The CERN director-general is also expected to meet teachers and researchers of various universities during the visit. The CERN official’s visit to Bangladesh holds immense importance for the advancement of science in the country. At the 37th session of UNESCO in Geneva on November 14, 2013, the government signed an expression of interest (EoI) with CERN for the institute to host atomic scientists as well as teachers and students of various organisations and educational institutions of the country, with a view towards gaining professional training at one of the world’s most advanced research centres. The signing of the EoI with CERN has also paved the way for signing a Cooperation Agreement in the near future, said the handout. CERN provides various forms of assistance to about 600 institutions across the globe. In Asia, 25 countries, including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, have already signed agreements with CERN. The previously low-key organization located astride the Franco-Swiss border came into prominence recently with its discovery of the Higgs boson, up until then the missing piece in the Standard Model in physics. The discovery was facilitated by CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, an 8-kilometre underground tunnel that acts as one of the most powerful particle accelerators in the world, according to a news agency.