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CERN and Sri Lanka develop partnership

An agreement that was recently signed between CERN and Sri Lanka will allow more Sri Lankan scientists and teachers to participate in CERN programmes

 

CERN Director General Rolf Heuer and Sri Lanka‘s Permanent Representative in Geneva, Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha, sign the Expression of Interest witnessed by Mrs. Samantha Jayasuriya, Deputy Permanent Representative and Ms. Dilini Gunasekera, Second Secretary of the Sri Lanka Permanent Mission, and by CERN’s Head of International Relations Rüdiger Voss.(Image: Maximilien Brice/CERN)

CERN and Sri Lanka have formed a partnership with the aim of formalizing and broadening their cooperation. To this end, CERN Director General Rolf Heuer and Sri Lanka‘s Permanent Representative at the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha, signed an Expression of Interest on Thursday 25 June 2015.

This agreement will pave the way for international cooperation with Sri Lanka in order to enhance collaboration and scholarly exchanges with CERN and to expose students, university scientists, engineers, and research institutes from Sri Lanka to cutting edge technology and research in the field of high-energy physics.

This agreement incorporates Sri Lanka in CERN’s High School Teachers and Summer Student Programmes. It also aims at preparing a platform that will include scientists from Sri Lanka to participate in CERN’s cutting-edge research programmes. Several scientists from Sri Lankan universities have participated in LHC experiments within the frameworks of sabbatical leaves or similar, whereas others have participated as visiting scientist employed by universities in third countries. In order to allow for a broader and more sustained participation, discussions have started in order to form a “cluster” of Sri Lankan Universities and research institutes with the aim of joining one of the LHC collaborations.

Sri Lanka is the most recent Asian Country to have strengthened its partnership with CERN. Other countries include those as diverse as Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia and Mongolia.