Chulalongkorn signs scientific research pact with Cern

From the Bangkok Post:  Chulalongkorn signs scientific research pact with Cern

Chulalongkorn University yesterday joined hands with the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern), in an agreement that will boost physics research within the country.

Cern earlier this month stunned the physics community with the announcement of the preliminary discovery of the long sought Higgs boson particle. The discovery of the particle would confirm the so-called "Standard Model" of physics and represent a breakthrough in the understanding of nature.

Albert De Roeck, a Cern scientist based in Switzerland and Joe Incandela, spokesman for Cern's Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector programme, visited Thailand yesterday to sign an agreement on physics research and cooperation with Chulalongkorn University. The scientists also gave a brief presentation on the Higgs particle discovery to Thai scientists and students at the university.

Pirom Kamolrattanakul, the dean of Chulalongkorn University, said Thailand is the first country in Asean to have a cooperative agreement with Cern.

Thailand, Cern's 41st member, will benefit from the agreement in terms of data sharing. Mr Pirom said Thai scientists would be able to directly access any information from Cern to help further physics research and studies in Thailand.

He said Chulalongkorn University would work with he National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre to set up a data centre to support the analysis of information gained from Cern's CMS detector. The detector, which weighs 12,500 tonnes and is located in Cessy, France, is used for studies crossing a wide range of physics.

Mr Incandela said Cern is working to confirm the discovery of the "Higgs-like boson" found earlier this month following more research and experiments.

"It's not an easy thing to do. But we expect to get the results by the end of the year," he said.
"If we have found [the Higgs boson], we will have moved closer towards understanding the fabric of our universe.

"We believe that the particle is very important."

Mr De Roeck said the discovery was "far beyond a fluke".

"In the experiment, what we have found is not the particle, but a decayed particle," he said.

"But at least we have seen significant clues leading us to meet with the Higgs particle."

The Higgs boson is a particle that is part of the Standard Model of particle physics. The boson is named after physicist Peter Higgs, who predicted the particle in 1964.

Cern launched the large hadron collider, the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, in 2008 with the aim of testing different physics theories, including the search for the Higgs boson. The collider is located in a 27km tunnel near Geneva.

Thailand's relationship with Cern dates to 2003 under the initiation of HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. Several Thai students and academics have since trained with Cern and developed projects with the organisation.