164

HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FOURTH SESSION OF COUNCIL

20 September 2012

RESTRICTED SESSION

 

PROPOSAL FOR AN LHC JAMBOREE IN DECEMBER 2012

The Council agreed to schedule an LHC jamboree, which would include status reports by the Spokespersons of the ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb experiments, from 9.00 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. on Thursday 13 December 2012.

 

TERMINOLOGY TO BE USED WITH RESPECT TO THE ELECTROWEAK SYMMETRY-BREAKING MECHANISM

The Council agreed that the electroweak symmetry-breaking mechanism should continue to be referred to as the Brout-Englert-Higgs (or BEH) mechanism in all official CERN communications, while the boson associated with that mechanism could continue to be called "the Higgs boson", as that term had long since passed into common parlance.

 

LHC MATTERS

The Council took note of reports by the Director for Accelerators and Technology, Dr Myers, the Director for Research and Computing, Dr Bertolucci, the Chairman of the Scientific Policy Committee, Professor Zwirner, and the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr Jacobsen, and expressed appreciation for the excellent performance of the LHC accelerator complex, infrastructure, experiments and computing, and for the physics results obtained, including progress in the investigation of the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism.

The Council further:

  • underlined that the announcements on 4 July had been truly historic in terms of the unprecedented media coverage in the Member States and throughout the world as well as in terms of the excitement generated at all levels of society;
  • congratulated the Management, the CERN personnel, the collaborations and everyone concerned on the achievements to date;
  • requested the Management to convey its particular thanks and congratulations to the Press Office, the webcast service and other relevant services of the IT Department for the high-quality coverage of the 4 July event, with photos, images and written text conveyed to an audience of over one billion worldwide;
  • took note of a statement by the President expressing appreciation to all the countries involved with CERN – Member, Associate and Observer States alike for their unfailing support over the past twenty years, which had laid the foundations for the success of the LHC, and voicing his eager anticipation of the rich physics programme that would flow from the LHC over the coming twenty years.
 

CERN PENSION FUND

The Council took note of an oral presentation by the Director for Administration and General Infrastructure, Mr Lettow, on the Pension Fund Investment Committee and its investment strategy, and on the impact of the IPSAS accounting standards on the Pension Fund’s funding ratio.

 

STANDING ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON AUDITS (SACA)

The Council took note of an oral report by the Chairman of the SACA, Dr Jacobsen, on the SACA meeting held on 4 September 2012.

 

CLOSED SESSION

 

REPORT ON APPLICANT STATES

The Council took note of the Director-General’s status report concerning progress towards accession to Associate Membership as the pre-stage to Membership of Cyprus, Slovenia and Turkey and his recent contacts with Canada, India and Russia.

The Council decided by consensus to adopt the Resolution set out in document CERN/3034/RA and thus to admit Cyprus as Associate Member State in the pre-stage to Membership, as defined by the Council in document CERN/2918/Rev., subject to the signature and entry into force of the Agreement annexed to the Resolution.

 

ELECTIONS

The Council unanimously elected Professor A. Zalewska President of the Council for a first term of office of one year, with effect from 1 January 2013.