Dundee scientists’ CERN mission

Dundee University has become the first in Scotland to join a project analysing data from the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.

The university has joined the CMS Collaboration at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research.

The CMS is one of the four main experiments at the Large Hadron Collider and the collaboration brings together members of the scientific community from across the globe in a quest to advance humanity’s knowledge of the very basic laws of our universe.

The CMS captures and measures data from the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest scientific experiment where recent breakthroughs have included the discovery of the Higgs boson particle, which has helped us understand the origins of mass.

As well as being the first Scottish university to join the CMS Collaboration, Dundee is one of only five UK institutions, joining Imperial College London, University of Bristol, Brunel University London, and the Science and Technology Facilities Council.

Dundee’s involvement is based around its expertise in materials engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering and computing.

Professor Sir Pete Downes, principal and vice-chancellor of the university, said, “This is a significant recognition of our work at Dundee, particularly in applied sciences and engineering.”