This is an open letter sent to several Austrian Scientists today, May 7 2009.
Dear All!
Unfortunately the headline is not a late April joke: science minister Hahn is going to announce today that Austria will cancel its CERN membership!
I think there can be no doubt that it is our duty to prevent this step.
Since I am still speechless I cannot even formulate what this would mean for science in Austria - the 5 decades of CERN membership have led to everything that is considered good and valuable in science: scientific excellence (out of 561 Austrian topcite 50+ papers in the SLAC database 274 are directly related to CERN), international collaborations, broad education of undergraduates, PhD students and postdocs and incredible spin-offs (see PS to this e-mail for some details).
I am also speechless because of the timing - the 50th anniversary and the LHC start this year.
Since I am so speechless I decided to quote instead the Austrian science minister Hahn concerning his recent assessment of CERN:
January 4 2008:
"Oesterreich ist bereits jetzt sehr erfolgreich am CERN - damit staerken wir unsere Position am weltweit groessten Kernforschungszentrum nachhaltig."
Quoted from http://www.bmwf.gv.at/submenue/presse_und_news/news_details/cHash/4231539a1b/article/bm- hahn-staerkt-die-forschungsinfrastrukturen-in-oesterreich-mit-mehr-als-55-mio-euro/newsb ack/34/
October 21 2008:
"Der LHC ist ein eindrucksvoller Beweis fuer die Schlagkraft der Grundlagenforschung und deren Bedeutung fuer die technologische Weiterentwicklung", sieht sich Wissenschaftsminister Johannes Hahn in seiner Forderung nach einer staerkeren Dotierung der Grundlagenforschung bestaerkt. "Ganz besonders freue ich mich ueber die starke oesterreichische Beteiligung an den verschiedenen Teilprojekten dieses groessten Experiments der Wissenschaftsgeschichte." so Hahn.
Oesterreich ist eines von 20 Mitgliedslaendern bei CERN und investiert jaehrlich 14 Millionen Euro fuer die Erforschung der grundlegenden Kraefte und Teilchen aus denen die Welt besteht. Seit 1993 koennen oesterreichische Doktoratsstudent/innen an einem ausserordentlichen Programm teilnehmen - die "CERN-High-Tech-Stipendien". Mit diesem Programm werden vom Wissenschaftsministerium zehn neue Studienplaetze mit rund 700.000 Euro pro Jahr am renommierten Forschungszentrum gefoerdert. Oesterreich stellt ein Drittel aller CERN-Stipendiat/innen und liegt damit an zweiter Stelle aller Mitgliedsstaaten.
Quoted from http://www.bmwf.gv.at/submenue/presse_und_news/news_details/cHash/8a61535017/article/hah n-cern-setzt-meilensteine-in-der-grundlagenforschung/newsback/34/?tx_ttnews[pointer]=4
These statements should be contrasted with the announcement today.
With best regards,
Daniel Grumiller
PS: SOME RELEVANT AUSTRIAN CERN DATA (SOURCE: REPORT BY C. FABJAN)
I. Austrian Institutions directly linked to CERN:
-) Austrian Institute for High Energy Physics (HEPHY)
-) Stefan Meyer Institute (SMI)
-) Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien)
-) University Innsbruck (U Ibk)
-) University Vienna (U Wien)
-) Austrian CERN personnel (Oe-CERN)
II. Scientific contributions by Austria:
Particle Physics Program at CERN
1978-1989: UA1 at proton-anti-proton collider (HEPHY), which led to discovery of W- and Z-bosons (physics nobelprize 1984)
1982-2000: ALEPH (U Ibk) and DELPHI (HEPHY) at LEP (Large Electron Positron Collider); precision measurements that corroborate the standard model of particle physics and lead to the precise determination of numerous particle physics parameters; proof that exactly three light particle families exist in the Universe
2000-2004: NA48 (HEPHY) at SPS; proof of direct CP violation, a pre-requisite for the existence of matter in the Universe; physics prize by the European Physical Society
1992-2009 (and beyond): conception and start-up of the four LHC experiments ALICE, ATLAS, LHCb and CMS: ALICE (Oe-CERN): technical management since 2001 LHCb (Oe-CERN): technical management since 2002 ATLAS (Oe-CERN, U Ibk): data analysis programs and development of detector systems CMS (HEPHY): HEPHY is founding member of the CMS collaboration
Numerous contributions to LHC technology: tracker, silicon technology, function controlling, conception, development, trigger, algorithms etc.
1997-2009 (and beyond): ASACUSA antimatter experiments: anti-hydrogen, anti-protonic atoms, matter-antimatter asymmetry investigations (SMI)
2000-2009 (and beyond): n-ToF collaboration on CERN neutron time-of-flight spectrometer and measurement of astrophysically relevant reactions (TU Wien)
III. External evaluation of Austrian particle physics
2004: Evaluation by RECFA (Restricted European Committee for Future Accelerators), Letter by director of RECFA B. Foster to BM Gehrer:
"... In summary, the committee was deeply impressed by the impact that Austria has made in particle physics, particularly at CERN, which is much larger than the relative small size of the community would suggest. This impact is a tribute to the leadership of the current generation and implies how imperative it is that this leadership should be renewed and strengthened in the universities and in the Academy."
2008: Evaluation of HEPHY through "Scientific Advisory Board", executive summary report:
"... The Scientific Advisory Board appraises the overall scientific achievements and performance of HEPHY as being excellent, i.e. being of high international visibility and impact. The same rating applies to most of the projects and departments, with a few being rated as good (i.e. internationally visible), and some as being outstanding, i.e. only few entities with equal strength existing worldwide."
IV. Austrians at CERN: numbers
Current numbers (2009):
Total number: 173 active Austrian scientists
Austrian scientists who perform research at CERN: 85
Austrian scientists as members of CERN personnel: 53
UPDATE: link to sos.teilchen.at
Weitersagen: