High Energy Physics deals with the study of the basic interaction between the matter's elementary particles. In recent years, several breakthroughs in this field took place, part of which endowed their discoverers with Nobel prizes (7 out of 16 Nobel prize-winners in the last 20 years dealt with this subject). In order to advance the field, a constant development of even bigger particle accelerators is required, with even more advanced and sensitive equipment.

CERN

Currently, the CERN facility in Geneva is the leading center for research in the field of nuclear research, with the largest particle accelerator call LEP. About 6500 scientists (half of which are High Energy physicists), come to CERN in order to perform their research, among them 27 Israeli research. Israeli researchers have played an important role in developing and operating some of the four particle detectors in CERN. Many amazing discoveries were made at CERN in the field of High Energies and in other fields. The basic development of the Internet was done at CERN, among other discoveries and inventions.

CERN has decided to build an even bigger and stronger than LEP called LHC, which will provide the research necessities for the next decade. In fact, scientists have already extracted all the possible information from the LEP accelerator. The new accelerator will have a collision energy 100 times greater than in LEP, and it will be as strong as 14 TeV. This will allow scientists to discover new particle-related phenomena.

Israel's contact with CERN

The Israeli Committee for High Energies, headed by Prof, EliezerRabinovich from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, coordinates Israel's contact with CERN. The committee was established on 1983. According to the cooperation agreement with CERN (initiated in 1990), the Government of Israel designates Millions of Swiss Franks per year for CERN's research. 85% of which are taken from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, for procuring goods from the Israeli Industry for CERN; and 15% of which are taken from the Ministry of Science and Technology, for scholarships for Israeli Scientists. As a result of this agreement, Israel has an observer status in CERN. The national fund for science is funding the research studies for the different groups dealing with this field.

The SESAMECenter

In addition to CERN's activity, UNESCO sponsors the establishment of the synchrotron accelerator in Aman, Jordan, called SESAME, which purpose is to serve mid-eastern scientists. The Ministry of Science and Technology has appointed a committee, headed by Prof.MosheDoitch for the Bar-IlanUniversity, which will coordinate Israeli activity on this issue and to represent Israel regarding this issue in UNESCO. We hope that in addition to the scientific coexistence, the SESAME center will contribute to the further advancement of the peace process in the Middle East, like CERN in Europe.