Government approval for Ireland to apply for Membership of CERN

UCD welcomes the announcement that Minister Harris has secured Government approval for Ireland to join CERN.  "This is wonderful news to hear in Science Week", said Professor McNulty of the UCD School of Physics, "and ensures that the future will be bright for Irish students and researchers".  In June 2023, Professor McNulty showed Minister Harris around CERN, and today he met with the Minister to discuss the next steps on the road to membership. 

Minister Harris (4th from Left) beside Professor McNulty (5th from Left) with UCD student Amanda Donohoe (2nd from Left) and former UCD student Dr. Karol Hennessy (2nd from Right), photographed underground at CERN in front of the LHCb detector (June 2023).

UCD has the only experimental particle physics groups in Ireland.  They have helped in the construction of experiments at the Large Hadron Collider and participated in the discovery of the Nobel prize-winning Higgs boson.  Spinoffs of CERN technology are now being evaluated in Irish hospitals by physicists at the UCD Centre for Physics in Health and Medicine.  

Membership of CERN will have significant impact for science in Ireland.  It will allow teachers and students to be trained at CERN, broaden the research opportunities, and involve Irish companies at the technology frontier.  

L to R: Professor Ronan McNulty (UCD), Minister Simon Harris and Professor Sinead Ryan (TCD) after the announcement that the Minister had secured Government approval for Ireland to join CERN.  Professors McNulty and Ryan are the co-chairs of the CERN-Ireland user group.