Rector of Riga Technical University (RTU) Academician Leonids Ribickis and the Minister of Education and Science Karlis Sadurskis participated in the signing of the Scientific and Technical Cooperation Agreement between the government of Latvia and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) that took place at the CERN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Agreement between the Government and the CERN is the result of several years of purposeful work of RTU, because already for several years RTU has successfully cooperated with the CERN by participating in joint research projects.
Already for 60 years, the CERN has been the leading nuclear research center of the world. It has made the most advanced discoveries that affected global development. At the CERN, the Internet was invented and a few years ago using the Large Hadron Collider the Higgs boson was discovered. Thanks to the agreement between the government and the CERN, now also Latvia will have access to this knowledge and the opportunity to supplement it with its investment.
Adviser to Rector of RTU, Professor Toms Torims states: “The Agreement opens up new opportunities for Latvian scientists – we enter a cooperation arena, where as equal players we will play together with a serious partner. Some RTU researchers are already working with the CERN, because since 2012 RTU has been the representative of Latvia at the CERN de facto and in fact has been present in the elaboration of cooperation agreement with the government. However, at a national level Latvia with the CERN has not so far cooperated”.
Latvian scientists will be able to directly participate in CERN research projects. In January 2017, RTU Doctoral student Arturs Ivanovs will start working at the CERN on research in the field of power electronics. Scientists will be able to attend the CERN schools and summer programs. T. Torims emphasizes that the cooperation agreement has been concluded also thanks to the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Janis Karklins.
Along with the Minister and the Rector of RTU, the CERN was attended by 11th grade pupils and teachers of RTU Engineering High School (EHS). On October 31, working at the CERN laboratory, they met with K. Sadurskis and L. Ribickis, and via video conferencing contacted the EHS pupils and teachers in Latvia so that they could remotely visit the CERN.
The cooperation of RTU and CERN becomes more intense – soon a joint international project will be launched related to developing technologies and materials for new colliders. So far, RTU scientists and Doctoral students have regularly visited the CERN, while the CERN scientists have delivered guest lectures at RTU. Thanks to RTU financial support, Latvian physics teachers have visited the CERN this summer and gained valuable knowledge about nuclear physics, which could be later used in teaching activities.
