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142 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL COOPERATION 



than most Americans, tend to record historical events more readily (an 

 exhaustive history of CERN has been commissioned by outside 

 sources).^ 



• Postdoctoral education for young U.S. physicists. Traditionally, 

 CERN has been receptive to a number of the most promising U.S. Ph.D. 

 graduates and has welcomed them as fully paid CERN research 

 associates. Others have spent their initial postdoctoral period in French, 

 English, or German laboratories, which made them, for long stretches, 

 resident at CERN. Their exposure to a top-notch international research 

 establishment has invariably enriched them— not only scientifically. A 

 cultural broadening may be one of the most essential benefits U.S. scien- 

 tists experience at CERN. 



• "Continuing education" of senior scientists. The great frequency of 

 shorter-term (up to 1 year) visits of U.S. physicists at CERN provides a 

 very important outlet to our community: Easy communication on all 

 levels — scientific, cultural, human — with a broad international spec- 

 trum of colleagues is a vital resource to many people on leave or on sab- 

 batical from high-pressure laboratory or academic surroundings in the 

 United States. 



Maybe the most pervasive benefit of the CERN-U.S. connection, in a 

 more general sense, is the realization by an important component of the 

 academic elite in the United States that sharing on a broad basis without 

 counting up each benefit, without weighing advantages and disadvan- 

 tages, is both normal and healthy in international relations. Just as it is of 

 lasting benefit for European-educated scientists to spend some time in 

 the United States and acquire some of the disrespectful pioneering spirit 

 that is so often the key to success in our discipline, it is refreshing f or U. S . 

 physicists at CERN to be exposed to European traditions and trends. It 

 helps to remove vestiges of cultural isolationism still pervasive in some 

 of our academic life. 



Measured against the benefits, problems springing from U.S. involve- 

 ment have been less prominent, but are changing as the volume grows. 

 They are mostly generated by the operational mode necessitated by the 

 intercontinental nature of collaborative ventures. 



University (or national laboratory) groups are most effective when 

 they can act cohesively. In experimental high-energy physics, this 

 means that a group operating at an accelerator within easy driving 

 distance of the home laboratory has a distinct advantage. Group in- 

 teractions, vertical and horizontal, are a vital feature of a healthy 

 research and teaching environment. Most university groups face the 

 complication of long-distance travel to accelerator sites. Common 



