As a Staff Member of the Newborn CERN

In the previous chapter, Källén in his 1954 application for the professorship in Zürich told us that he had participated in European collaboration in the area of nuclear physics (CERN) in Copenhagen. He was a fellow of CERN before the organization was officially created and at the same time a lecturer in Lund. CERN was officially created on the 29 September 1954, after an intense period of preparations, involving many steps in several countries. The glorious history of its creation is well worth reading [1] as it shows the dedication and commitment of a large number of distinguished international scientists, not only in Europe but also in America. Moreover, there was ample support by prominent politicians for the idea of creating a European center for, not applied but basic science. The site was chosen to be on the green fields of Meyrin, a satellite village to the city of Geneva in Switzerland, a decision which was approved by the citizens of Geneva through a referendum. The CERN “Group of Theoretical Studies”, was created through a resolution passed by the CERN Interim Council in Amsterdam in May 1952. The Group was quickly formed, and could start its work, as it was believed that it did not need any accelerators. It was based in Copenhagen which was a great place to be, due to already existing infrastructure and presence of such distinguished local physicists as Niels Bohr and Christian Møller. Indeed, by that time, Copenhagen had been a world center for theoretical physics during several decades. Thus, in 1952, Källén became a fellow of the yet unborn CERN.