The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the developer of the Large Hadron Collider, will stop cooperating with scientists associated with Russian organizations.
A Russian physicist who participates in scientific experiments at CERN told The Insider on condition of anonymity that the termination of cooperation would seriously affect Russian science. According to him, we are talking about the destruction of the entire field of experimental high-energy physics.
“The case is related to the cooperation agreement between Russia and CERN. After the outbreak of the war, the CERN management – the representatives of the participating countries – decided that this agreement would not be extended. It expires in November. This is a serious blow, I would say that it is the destruction of the entire field of experimental high-energy physics. After all, these are scientists who have been on the cutting edge of modern science, working at CERN, and now we are being thrown out of there, denied access to experimental facilities and the international scientific community. CERN is the only place in the world where such science is possible. The collider is one of a kind. No access means no science,” the Russian scientist commented.
Russian media quoted CERN spokesman Arnaud Marsolier as saying: “Currently, we have less than 500 users who are still associated with any Russian organization, most of them do not reside in this region [in Switzerland]. The suspension of the cooperation agreement will take effect on November 30 this year,” Marsolier said.
The official clarified that the work done by these scientists at the Large Hadron Collider will be taken over by other people.
He also reminded that CERN no longer receives funding from Russia.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Association of European Universities suspended 14 Russian universities from the organization. The reason for this decision was that the heads of these educational institutions had signed an appeal by the Russian Union of Rectors in support of the deployment of Russian troops to Ukraine.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has terminated its cooperation with the Russian state corporation Roscosmos on the ExoMars-2022 Martian program. The All European Federation of Academies of Sciences (ALLEA) has suspended the membership of Russia and Belarus. Russia and Belarus were also excluded from the European Higher Education Area (Bologna Process).
The European Association of Science Editors (EASE) has suspended individual membership of specialists from Russia. The European Association for the Study of the Liver has published an appeal to all scientific societies, institutes and consortia in Europe calling for the termination of cooperation with Russian institutions. The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) has frozen all contacts and excluded the possibility of Russians participating in any form of its activities. OncoAlert, an international network of oncologists, has ceased all cooperation with associations and congresses in Russia.
