TAHIR AMIN
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has formally become Associate Member of the European organisation for nuclear research CERN.
Director-General CERN Dr Rolf-Dieter Heuer, addressing a joint press conference with Chairman Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) Dr Ansar Parvez, said Pakistan was the first county of South Asia to become Associate Member of CERN. “India is in the process to submit application to get the same status, however it will take some time,” he added.
Earlier, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect was signed by Director-General CERN Dr Rolf-Dieter Heuer and Chairman PAEC Dr Ansar Parvez here on Friday, which was also attended by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister termed the initiative as the landmark moment in the development of science in Pakistan. He thanked DG CERN for recognising efforts, hard work and capabilities of scientists, engineers and technicians of PAEC and for allowing Pakistan to become part of the unique and leading institution of scientific research.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said it was testimony of the fact that whenever provided an opportunity, people of Pakistan were capable of standing up to any international standard.
The PM reminded the scientific community of Pakistan that Associate Membership of CERN was not a goal, but a means to pursue, acquire and achieve scientific and engineering knowledge and expertise.
The PM said “the membership also provides an opportunity to our industrialists and businessmen and companies can now participate in construction and engineering work carried out at CERN.”
The PM said his government was committed to well-being and prosperity of the people. “Pakistan is facing many challenges and we have to work hard to eradicate poverty from the country and raise living standards of the people.” He said that objective could be achieved only through education and advancement in science and technology.
He expressed the confidence that relationship between Pakistan and CERN would open new avenues for youth in science and engineering and they could now benefit from state-of-the-art expertise available at CERN.
The PM directed Chairman PAEC to work closely with High Education Commission and the Ministry of Science and Technology to develop a comprehensive programme so that the youth can derive maximum benefit out of the opportunity.
Ansar Parvez said it was a significant and historic moment for Pakistan and its scientific community, as the agreement for “Associate Membership” with CERN signed, which reflected decades of committed efforts by our scientists and engineers contributing to the scientific research and technological work at CERN. “I believe and hope that this formal relationship with the world leading research organization will act as a catalyst for building a better and stronger scientific base in the country,” he added. An exciting opportunity it would provide to young scientists to interact with the best in the world and develop themselves into productive members of the society, Dr Parvez added.
DG CERN said Pakistan’s Associate Membership would not only strengthen the relationship of scientific community in Pakistan with the people at CERN, but would also allow Pakistani scientists to join CERN staff and to participate in CERN’s training and career development programmes. In addition, it would allow Pakistan’s industry to bid for CERN contracts, which would open up opportunities for industrial collaborations based on advanced technologies, he added.
Dr Pervez said, “At CERN, LHC is the largest particle accelerator, where the particles are made to collide together at close to the speed of light. It is 100 meters below Switzerland and France in a 27km circumference tunnel. The process gives the physicists clues about how the particles interact, and provides insight into the fundamental laws of nature.”
CERN has contributed to the discovery of several sub-atomic particles. During July 2012 CERN announced the discovery of the elusive Higgs boson, sometimes also called the god particle, which was detected on several detectors, one of which was made by Pakistan.
Pakistan has been collaborating with CERN since late 1950’s through mutual visits and student exchanges. However, in 1994 CERN and Pakistan entered into a formal collaboration. This was followed by the signature of several protocols. Today Pakistan is contributing to CERN experiments like ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, CLIC and LINAC4. In this engineering enterprise, Pakistani scientists, engineers and technologists have played a pivotal role in the construction of LHC detectors and more importantly in the upgrade of the LHC. A team of Pakistani engineers worked day and night for 18 months to bring LHC to its design parameters.
Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission is playing a major role in Pak-CERN collaboration for the last 20 years. Former PAEC chairman Dr lshfaq Ahmad pioneered the collaboration and subsequent chairmen supported the effort.
PAEC has built the support structures for CMS, the CMS tracker alignment system, collar shielding for CMS HF calorimeter, YE4 shielding wall for CMS and also various other mechanical components for ATLAS and LHC. Some of the finest engineers of PAEC have worked on the effort. For this purpose PAEC has most modern designing, manufacturing and fabrication capability at HMC-3 and various others facilities.
