Studies of phase diagram of strongly interacting matter at the CERN SPS

<!--HTML--><p><span style="color:#000000">Twenty years ago, the seven experiments on CERN's Heavy Ion programme at the Super Proton Synchrotron<span>&nbsp;</span></span><br /> <span style="color:#000000">(NA44, NA45/CEREA,NA49, NA50,NA52/NEWMASS, WA97/NA57 and WA98) combining their data were able to<span>&nbsp;</span></span><br /> <span style="color:#000000">characterise a new state of matter, verifying an important prediction of the theory of fundamental forces between quarks.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="color:#000000">This talk briefly reviews studies of the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter with relativistic nuclear collisions<span>&nbsp;</span></span><br /> <span style="color:#000000">at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron which followed the observation of the quark-gluon plasma.<span>&nbsp;</span></span><br /> <span style="color:#000000">The first ten years of this period was mostly influenced by results of the NA49 experiment, the second period was dominated by NA61/SHINE.<span>&nbsp;</span></span><br /> <span style="color:#000000">I will close by suggesting priorities for future measurements.</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p>