30 July 2026 to 5 August 2026
Natal, Brazil
America/Sao_Paulo timezone

The History of Brasil’s Participation in CERN

Not scheduled
20m
Natal, Brazil

Natal, Brazil

Via Costeira Sen. Dinarte Medeiros Mariz, 6664-6704 - Ponta Negra, Natal - RN, 59090-002
Poster Education & Outreach

Speaker

Dr Ivã Gurgel (Universidade de São Paulo)

Description

The research seeks to understand how scientists from Brazilian research institutions became involved in CERN experiments and what obstacles may have hindered their participation. To this end, we consulted CERN’s own historical archives, from which approximately 800 pages of documents were collected. In addition, information was gathered through an oral history project in which 12 prominent researchers shared their experiences at CERN through semi-structured interviews.
Our account of this history is organized around three key phases. In the early 1980s, collaboration with CERN was driven primarily by individual initiatives with minimal institutional support. In a second moment, Fermilab—under the leadership of Leon Lederman—began strengthening its ties with Latin America, prompting CERN to undertake similar efforts in the 1990s. From the 2000s onward, many researchers who had been working in the United States transitioned to CERN, which sought to expand its pool of collaborators to support research at the LHC.
This narrative highlights two distinct modes of Brazil’s involvement in CERN experiments: participation as a user, in which Brazilian researchers contribute mainly to data analysis, and participation as a contributor to the construction of experiments, including the provision of essential technologies.

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Author

Dr Ivã Gurgel (Universidade de São Paulo)

Co-author

Graciella Watanabe (Federal University of ABC)

Presentation materials

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