166

HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SIXTH SESSION OF COUNCIL

21 March 2013

 

RESTRICTED AND CLOSED SESSIONS

 

DIRECTOR GENERAL'S REPORT

The Director-General gave an oral report on the following matters:

  • Media reporting of scientific developments at CERN
  • Follow-up to the granting of Observer status at the UN General Assembly
  • Visits, teaching programmes and exhibitions
  • Delivery of the ion source to MedAustron
  • Commissioning of the first stage of Linac-4
  • Prizes awarded to CERN and particle physics.

 

STATUS OF THE LHC AND EXPERIMENTS

The Council heard a presentation by the Director for Accelerators and Technology, Dr Myers, on the preliminary results of the 2012-2013 LHC run and on the status of LS1 activities and of the reports by the Chairman of the Scientific Policy Committee, Professor Zwirner, and the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr Jacobsen, and congratulated the Management and all those involved in the running of the LHC machine on the excellent results achieved during the extended 2012 run that had ended in early 2013 and looked forward to receiving regular progress reports on LS1, the first of which would be presented in June 2013.

The Council heard a presentation by the Director for Research and Scientific Computing, Dr Bertolucci, of the physics highlights from the past three months’ analysis by the LHC collaborations and of the reports by the Chairmen of the Scientific Policy Committee and the Finance Committee, and congratulated the LHC collaborations and everyone involved in the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid on the remarkable ongoing physics analyses, which had notably resulted in the confirmation of the particle whose discovery was announced in July 2012 as a Higgs boson.

 

CERN PENSION FUND

The Council heard an oral report by the Chairman of the Pension Fund Governing Board, Professor Riska, on the activities of the Board, the Investment Committee and the Actuarial and Technical Committee since his last report to the Council in December 2012.

 

STANDING ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON AUDITS (SACA)

The Council heard an oral report by the Chairman of the SACA, Dr Jacobsen, on the Committee’s meeting on 12 March 2013.

 

INFORMATION ON THE MEDIUM-TERM PLAN FOR THE PERIOD 2014-2018

The Council took note of a presentation by the Director-General on the overall physics-driven framework and main boundary conditions for the Medium-Term Plan for the period 2014-2018, which were essentially unchanged from the previous year and in which full, 20-year exploitation of the LHC remained the highest priority.

It further noted that the content of the Medium-Term Plan for the period 2014-2018 would depend upon the outcome of the Council’s examination of the updated European Strategy for Particle Physics, which it was due to approve at a special Session in Brussels on 30 May 2013, and that the Management would draw up a Medium-Term Plan for approval in June that took account of the priorities emerging from the updated European Strategy for Particle Physics, of the Scientific Policy Committee’s input, and of the comments made by delegations during the discussion.

 

CLOSED SESSION

 

REPORT ON THE ENLARGEMENT PROCESS

The Council took note of the Director-General’s status report on the progress of Cyprus and Slovenia towards accession to Associate Membership as the pre-stage to Membership, on the progress of Brazil, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine towards accession to Associate Membership and on his recent contacts with Canada and India. The Council further took note of a letter and application file received from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission expressing Pakistan’s wish to acquire the status of Associate Member of CERN. It was agreed that the Council would discuss the matter at its June Session.

 

SENIOR STAFF APPOINTMENT BY THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL

The Council unanimously decided to approve the appointment of Luis Miralles Verge (ES) as Head of the General Infrastructure Services Department, for the period 1 April 2013 to 31 December 2015.

 

ELECTIONS

  • One Vice-President of Council

The Council formally elected Dr C. Césarsky Vice-President of the Council for a first period of one year with effect from 1 July 2013 by unanimous vote.