The CERN research organisation was established in 1954, two years after an agreement was signed by representatives of eleven European countries, namely: Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, West Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden and Italy. Shortly afterwards, the United Kingdom joined the group. Before Poland officially joined this international group in 1991, it had held the official status of observer at CERN since 1964 – as the only country from the Eastern Bloc , and Polish companies were involved in the construction of the centre, producing, amongst other things, vacuum vessels for superconducting magnets. They also supplied the raw materials essential to the institution’s operations (including helium). It owed its position to the efforts of Professors Marian Danysz, Jerzy Pniewski and Marian Mięsowicz.

Currently, 25 countries are involved in CERN’s work. Over half a thousand Poles work there, a large proportion of whom are on scholarships. They are involved in carrying out the centre’s most important projects, including: the construction of the ALICE and ATLAS and LHCb ( for more on the experiments, see the descriptions by Urszula Kaczorowska ) , which enable the operation of the Large Hadron Collider. The contribution of Poles to the work carried out at CERN is reflected, amongst other things, in a series of temporary information boards placed in areas of the campus open to visitors, and in the presence of the Polish flag amongst the symbols of the member states at the entrance to the centre.

List of sites commemorating Poles at CERN and in the surrounding area

Gayle Hermick, ‘Wandering the Immesurable’, 2014, steel

On the CERN campus, near the CERN Globe of Science and Innovation (Globe de la science et de l’innovation du CERN) and the CERN Science Gateway (CERN Science Gateway), which serves an educational purpose, stands a stainless-steel sculpture titled ‘ : “Wandering the Immesurable”’ by the Canadian sculptor Gayle Hermick, created in 2014. The installation, in the form of an unfurling and coiling ribbon symbolising the immeasurable nature of possibilities, depicts key moments in the history of science and technology worldwide. Among the 396 scientific achievements are inscriptions referring to the accomplishments of two Poles: the discovery of radium and polonium by Marie Curie and the geometric unification of space and time by Hermann Minkowski .

Zofia Wolska, ‘Maria Skłodowska-Curie’, c. 1978, bronze

Tucked away in the foyer of the CERN reception building stands a socialist-realist bronze bust of Marie Skłodowska-Curie, with austere features, set on a marble plinth, created by Zofia Wolska. The work is signed ‘ZW’. This work is probably the only example of a female scientist depicted in the form of a work of art on the CERN site. The sculpture was presented to the Director-General of CERN on 19 March 1979 by the then Deputy Minister for Energy and Nuclear Energy, Jan Felicki, on behalf of Polish physicists, as a token of gratitude for the opportunity to conduct research at the centre.

Another cast of this sculpture is housed at the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum in Warsaw.

Photographic documentation of the event is available on the CERN website.

Marie Curie Route

Marie Skłodowska-Curie, as one of only two women – alongside Chien-Shiung Wu – has been honoured with her own street on the CERN site. The 225-metre-long road was given this name by a decision of the Council of State on 11 September 2013.

Route Georges Charpak, Saint-Genis-Pouilly

Georges, or rather Jerzy, Charpak (1924–2010), a French physicist of Polish-Jewish descent from Dąbrowica in Polesie, played a significant role in the history of CERN. Together with the team he led, he made discoveries at CERN, including various properties of muons . For his invention of the multi-wire proportional chamber (MWPC), Charpak was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1992. In the small village of Saint-Genis-Pouilly, near CERN, there is a road leading to the centre that is named after him.