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Sofia University Rector Met CERN’s Director General

Sofia University Rector Professor Dr. Habil. Anastas Gerdzhikov met the Director General of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) Professor Fabiola Gianotti. Professor Gianotti is currently on a visit to this country on the invitation of the Minister of Education and Science Professor Nikolay Denkov.

The meeting was attended by Professor Nikolay Vitanov, Vice Rector of Sofia University, Professor Alexander Draishu, Dean of the Faculty of Physics, Mrs Zlatina Karova, Director of the Science Directorate at the Ministry of Education and Science, and Professor Leander Litov from the Faculty of Physics, leader of the Bulgarian CERN team.

Professor Fabiola Gianotti presented CERN’s multifarious work in the domain of fundamental research and its application, the scientific achievements, the major current projects and the Bulgarian participation in them. She thanked both Professor Gerdzhikov and Professor Draishu for the high quality background of the Sofia University scholars who had been working with CERN over the years.

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Professor Gianotti pointed out that fundamental research was indispensable to the innovations the center worked on. In her words, another important aspect of CERN’s activities was education, and, in this line, she added that the interface with the educational institutions was held in high esteem. She noted that for the past 15 years 10 000 high school teachers from all round the world had undergone training at CERN. During the training course the teachers could visit the world-famous experimental installation, conduct laboratory exercises and attend lectures related to the most recent achievements in science delivered by top scholars.

During her visit Professor Fabiola Gianotti met the Minister of Education and Science Professor Nikolay Denkov and the Chairman of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Professor Yulian Revalski, Member of the Academy. At those meetings she discussed with them issues related to the improvement of funding, coordination and management of the national policy in the domain of sciences and innovations, specifically in the area of the physics of the elementary particles and its applications.

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Professor Fabiola Gianotti will participate in the meetings of the European Committee for Future Accelerators (ECFA) held by the European Organizatio for Nuclear Research (CERN) that will be held on 24 -25 May, 2017 in Sofia. Such meetings were held in this country in 2002 and 2010 and one of their central activities are to monitor the development of the physics of elementary particles in each member-state every seven years.

The conclusions of the commission for the visits thus far are that Bulgarian scholars, engineers, specialists and technicians, supported by their international links and the high quality of their work, have been participating actively in the program of scientific work of the organization and have palpably contributed to the development of the physics of elementary particles worldwide.