CERN is a role model for international scientific research in Europe and beyond. This symposium offers both a general introduction to CERN as well as a Belgian and Flemish perspective. What is the legacy of CERN for mankind? What is its scientific and industrial return for Belgium? What discoveries and technological improvements await in the future? National and international scientists reflect during the symposium resulting from the KVAB Thinkers' Programme "Flanders, Belgium and CERN" with Walter Van Doninck.

Thinker-in-Residence: Walter Van Doninck
 

 

Walter van Doninck is emeritus professor particle physics at the University of Brussels (VUB). He studied at RUCA (Antwerp) and VUB. In 1977 he obtained his PhD from VUB. Since 1992 he participated in the CMS experiment near the accelerator LHC at CERN. He was research director at the Fund for Scientific Research (FWO) and vice-president of the Council of the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN). In 2014 Van Doninck was elected as a foreign member of the KVAB.

PROGRAMME
 

10:00 Welcome
Joos Vandewalle, KVAB
 

10:15 Introducing CERN
Frédérick Bordry, CERN
 

10:50 Flanders & Belgium Highlights
Nuclear Physics
Gerda Neyens, KU Leuven
Particle Physics
Jorgen D'Hondt, VUB
 

11:40 Break
 

12:15 CERN in images
Film intermezzo
 

12:30 CERN Alumni Testimonials
 

12:45 What's out there?
Gian Giudice, CERN
 

13:30 Lunch
 

14:30 CERN's legacy to mankind
Siegfried Bethke, Max Planck Institute München
 

15:15 Accelerators in society
Wim Leemans, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, CA

16:00 Education, training, incubation
Ana Godinho, CERN
 

16:30 Break

17:00 Science for peace
Herwig Schopper, CERN
 

17:35 Wrap up
Walter Van Doninck, Thinker in Residence
 

18:00 Closing Reception