A Seminar on “Pakistan and CERN: Collaborations in Advanced Scientific Research†was organized by the Center for International Strategic Studies (CISS) at the Marriott Hotel on Thursday May 14, 2015.
Minister for Science and Technology Mr. Rana Tanveer Hussain was the chief guest at the Seminar while Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudry was the Keynote speaker. Other Speakers included eminent Pakistani scientists and Physicists from prestigious institutes. Ambassador Ali Sarwar Naqvi, executive director CISS, in his opening remarks welcomed the speakers and other seminar attendees.
Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudry in his keynote address appreciated CISS for conducting a seminar on a very important subject where Pakistan has contributed in perhaps one of humanity’s biggest scientific project. Foreign secretary elaborated that Pakistan’s membership in CERN is of great pride for nation and opens further avenues for cooperation in scientific and technical fields with advance countries.
The conference examined Pakistan’s contribution to the world’s leading scientific research facility, the European Council of Nuclear Research (CERN). CERN houses the world’s largest circular particle collider with an approximate circumference of 27km located 100ft underground near Geneva, straddling the Franco-Swiss border. This most advanced scientific experiment has led to the validation of the Higgs Boson particle, lab simulations of the Big Bang, and it studies the nature of particle collisions. A large number of Pakistani physicists contributed towards the experiments being undertaken there.
Speakers emphasized that Pakistan is fully aware of the importance of research in the fields of science and technology and has been working internally as well as collaborating with other states and international agencies in this regard. It is home to scientific research facilities that are at par with international standards especially in the field of nuclear physics and has produced some of the finest scientists, Dr. Abdus Salam, being the most prominent among them. Owing to security concerns and regional tensions taking up most of the media attention, even Pakistanis, outside the scientific community, are not cognizant of the achievements of Pakistani scientists and engineers. Pakistan has been given the associate member status in CERN in 2014 in recognition of Pakistani scientists and engineers contributions in designing and fabricating sophisticated integral parts of infrastructure for the Compact Muon Solenoid and Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Seminar was well attended by members of academia, scientific establishments, diplomats and students from prominent universities in Islamabad. The proceedings were followed by an interactive session in which the participants raised a number of questions regarding the issues covered and were answered comprehensively by concerned speakers.
