On Tuesday, 8 September, CERN welcomed His Royal Highness, Prince Edward the Duke of Edinburgh, to visit the site and meet members of the CERN community. Upon arrival at LHC Point 5, he was greeted by the sub-prefect of Gex, Joël Bourgeot, and a CERN delegation that included Director-General Mark Thomson; Director for Accelerators and Technology, Oliver Brüning; Director for Research and Computing, Gautier Hamel de Monchenault; Director for Stakeholder Relations, Ursula Bassler; Director for Finance and Human Resources, Jan-Paul Brouwer; Director for Site Operations, Mar Capeáns; Chief Information Officer, Enrica Porcari; Stakeholder Engagement Group Leader, James Purvis; and the Liaisons for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Roger Jones and Pippa Wells.

The Duke of Edinburgh then had the opportunity to go underground to see some of CERN’s experiments for himself. He was first given a guided tour of the CMS experimental cavern by CMS Spokesperson Anadi Canepa and Technical Student Amandine Meertens from the University of Bath, of which the duke is Chancellor.

Next up on the tour was another trip underground at LHC Point 4 to see a part of the LHC tunnel. From there, the Duke moved on to the CERN Science Gateway, where he had a brief conversation with secondary school students from the University College London Academy. He then attended a roundtable discussion with CERN British scientists and engineers.

Following this discussion, the Duke signed the official CERN guest book before meeting a larger group of British members of the CERN community, including students and alumni of the University of Bath. As the Director-General recalled in a speech at the event, one previous notable signatory of the guest book is the late Prince Philip, former Duke of Edinburgh and father of Prince Edward.  In April 1960, the then Duke of Edinburgh paid an informal visit to CERN after flying himself to Geneva by helicopter!