CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, operates the world's largest particle physics laboratory. Its central facility is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator used to study the fundamental constituents of matter. Beyond physics experiments, CERN develops the sophisticated computing infrastructure required to process and distribute the vast quantities of data generated by LHC experiments - work that has driven advances in high-performance computing and big data handling more broadly.
CERN's technical reach extends well beyond the laboratory. In March 1989, Tim Berners-Lee wrote his proposal for a global information-sharing system while at CERN; on 30 April 1993, the organisation placed the World Wide Web in the public domain. The organisation's engineering and computing capabilities span accelerator physics, scientific instrumentation, large-scale IT infrastructure, and experimental engineering.
Staff and researchers are drawn from approximately 100 nationalities, working within a collaborative framework that brings together countries, universities, and scientists from around the world. The organisation is not commercially driven; its work is oriented toward fundamental scientific understanding and the technological innovations that follow from it.
