Foundation Prize
Laureate 1999
CERN
1999 Prize awarded to the European Organization for Nuclear Research
This year, Cern, the flagship institution of one of the centres of excellence in international Geneva, was chosen as the winner. Three thousand leading physicists work there, including five Nobel Prize winners, and there are countless major technological developments that have come out of this institution – including the Web.
Luciano Maiani, Director General of Cern, will receive the award on behalf of the scientific institution on 8 November at the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices, at a ceremony to be given by the Rector of the University of Geneva, Maurice Bourquin (see annex for details of the ceremony). Fritz Hauser, a percussionist from Basel and member of the International Percussion Centre, will enhance the speeches with a galaxy of atomic and percussive sounds.
Mr Maiani will then open the exhibition “Cern, a walking Tower of Babel”, aimed at the general public and schools. This exhibition, which will run from 8 to 16 November from 12 noon to 8pm at the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices, will give CERN the opportunity to present science that is accessible to all. Illustrations, video clips, a ‘funny physics’ workshop, a Webcafé, an element of the accelerator and the first web server in history will highlight the qualities that make up the ‘powerful’ Tower of Babel that is CERN: collaboration, competence and curiosity.
The aim is to demonstrate that, since its creation, CERN has taken up the challenge of advancing indefinitely towards scientific knowledge, thanks to the diversity and the human and professional qualities of the people who make it up.
