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Founded in 1954, the CERN laboratory sits astride the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe's first joint ventures and now has 20 member states.

Researchers at CERN are using some of the world’s biggest and most complex scientific instruments to study the basic constituents of matter, called fundamental particles. By colliding particles together at almost the speed of light, physicists can see how particles interact, which can provide insights into the laws of nature.

CERN is home to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. The 27 km ring of superconducting magnets accelerates two beams of particles to almost the speed of light, with a record energy of 4 TeV per beam.

However, there is more to CERN than just the LHC. The LHC is the last link in a series of particle accelerators that progressively increase the energy of particle beams. The other machines in the complex have their own experimental halls, where beams are used for experiments requiring lower energies.

• Visiting CERN
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Charlotte Jamieson
CERN Liaison and
Accelerator Programme Manager
CERN Liason Officer