Status of the ALICE Experiment

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment), the dedicated detector designed to study nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC, is developing rapidly. While the experimental area is being cleared of the last elements of the L3 detector, who stopped datataking at the end of 2000, the ALICE collaboration is at work for the first steps of the installation of the detector, namely the refurbishing work on the L3 magnet and the adaptation of the infrastructure. In the meantime, in the 77 laboratories of the Collaboration, the work of preparation of the detectors is changing gear: the R&D is completed on almost all elements, with some notable advances in innovative technologies, and the major detectors components have entered the production phase. Moreover the TRD, a major new detector designed to expand the ALICE capability to identify electrons, has reached the Technical Design Report stage and is now being discussed by the LHCC. The status of our understanding of the ALICE Physics potential is described in other papers in these proceedings [4, 5, 6], so I will concentrate here on a brief description of the ALICE detectors, with mention of the most recent results achieved.