Geneva, 11 June 1996. On 7 June, Mr Radomir Sabela, Deputy Minister for Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic together with CERN Director General Prof. Chris Llewellyn Smith formally opened the first ever exhibition of Czech hi-tech companies at CERN1. Mr Sabela stressed that the exhibition will hopefully prove that the Czech Republic, despite its considerable handicaps during the past, is well along the road to regaining its place as one of Europe's most productive and creative countries,"I am very proud to see so many top level Czech companies represented at this exhibition and strongly believe that Czech industry can make an important contribution to the research at CERN." He expressed gratitude for the opportunities for technology transfer offered by collaboration with CERN and full support by the Czech Republic for the future of CERN - the LHC project. Prof. Chris Llewellyn Smith said he was delighted by this first exhibition of high technology products from a country from a central European country and underlined that industrial sales to CERN were a potential gateway to other western European markets. After the inauguration ceremony, Mr Sabela toured the exhibition and visited a group of Czech scientists working on the Delphi experiment on CERN's Large Electron Positron collider (LEP).
More than twenty-nine Czech hi-tech companies present their products at this industrial exhibition at CERN which takes place from 7 till 10 June 1994. This exhibition offers companies from the Czech Republic the opportunity to display their products in fields that are of immediate importance to the scientists, engineers and technicians working at CERN, to scientists from non-Member States who take part in research projects at the Laboratory and to Swiss and French companies. The range of products covers a wide area: small and precision machined mechanical components, heavy mechanical components, computer systems, electrical and mechanical instrumentation, cryogenics, high vacuum systems and other scientific systems and instruments. The exhibition is being organized by Tecon Ltd, in co-operation with the Confederation of Industry under the auspices of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Committee for Co-operation with CERN.
CERN is one of the most prestigious centres for fundamental research in the world where European countries have brought together their scientists to build unique machines, specially designed for research in elementary particle physics. CERN's complex technological needs act as a catalyst in stimulating industrial progress in Europe. CERN is in the process of preparing a new project of unparalleled importance, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle collider which will bring protons into collision to create the same energy conditions that existed only 10-12 of a second after the birth of our Universe in the Big Bang. CERN will develop the most sophisticated technology in order to construct LHC, for instance in the fields of superconductivity, cryogenics and electronics, offering European industry a new opportunity to display their potential. The "Czech Republic at CERN" exhibition will allow Czech industry to demonstrate its ability to contribute to this extremely important project which will enable scientists from all over the world to make new discoveries in the fundamental structures and forces of matter.
Twenty-nine companies will present their latest technology at the "Czech Republic at CERN" exhibition.
1. CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's leading laboratory for particle physics. It has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Romania is a candidate for accession. Israel is an Associate Member in the pre-stage to Membership. India, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and UNESCO have Observer status.