Status of the LHC Operations and Physics Program

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has just completed a successful first year of operation. In 2010, the primary goal to achieved a peak luminosity of 1032cm−2s−1 at a 7 TeV centre-of-mass energy was achieved and the machine achieved safely and reliably routine operation in the multi-MJ regime. The good results of 2010 have laid a solid foundation towards the achievement of the primary physics goal to deliver an integrated luminosity of 1 fb−1 in 2011. A fast and efficient LHC re-commissioning in 2011 lead already to a peak luminosity of 2.5×1032cm−2s−1 achieved in the fourth commissioning week. In this paper, the 2010 commissioning experience is reviewed and the present status and perspective are presented.