The official website of the Organization announced on Wednesday that it now has one more associate member – Turkey.
CERN's website states that Turkish physicists have been active in a number of experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, such as ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment), devoted to research in the physics of matter at an infinitely small scale; ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS), aimed at investigating a wide range of physics, from the search for the Higgs boson to extra dimensions and particles that could make up dark matter and CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid), which has the same scientific goals as ATLAS, but using different technical solutions and a different magnet-system design.
Turkey was granted Observer Status at CERN in 1961. In 2008 a Cooperation Agreement between CERN and the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority (TAEK) was signed concerning the further development of scientific and technical cooperation in high-energy physics.
Associate Membership will now allow Turkey to attend meetings of the CERN Council. Moreover, it will allow Turkish scientists to become members of the CERN staff, and to participate in CERN’s training and career development programs. Finally, it will allow Turkish industry to bid for CERN contracts, thus opening up opportunities for industrial collaboration in areas of advanced technology.