The joint Russia-CERN committee, co-chaired by Fursenko and the research center's Director General, Robert Aymar, holds a session Saturday.
One of the main projects CERN is currently working on is the construction of a particle accelerator known as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The accelerator, 27 kilometers in circumference, sits in a subterranean tunnel one hundred meters deep. Its construction is to be completed by the year 2007. Scientists hope the LHC will help them discover what they call the "Higgs boson," a particle, or a set of particles, that can impart mass on others. According to CERN, as many as 744 Russian researchers are now participating in the work of its experimental groups.
The forthcoming talks will focus not just on Russian scientists' contribution to the construction of the Large Hadron Collider, but also on their involvement in the processing of experimental findings once the LHC is launched.
The sides are also expected to discuss current organizational and financial problems facing CERN, as well as its educational potential. According to the Russian Education and Science Ministry's press office, they will examine the possibility of expanding cooperation between Russian universities and European research and academic institutions within the framework of international CERN projects.
"Planned for 2005 is the signing of memorandums that will serve as a regulatory basis for Russian scientists' participation in this large-scale European project," the ministry has announced.
CERN is the world's largest nuclear research center, with scientists from twenty countries involved in its projects. It has been cooperating with research groups at the Academy of Sciences, the Atomic Energy Agency, and the Education and Science Ministry of Russia for over 30 years now.
