From the desk of the CB Chairperson

The CB Chair team is pleased to issue the first newsletter of the year. With Ian Shipsey, our former CB Chair now well installed in his new job, the team now consists of: Claudia-Elisabeth Wulz (acting CB Chair), Claire Shepherd-Themistocleous (Deputy CB Chair) and Jorgen D'Hondt (CB Secretary). Claire will have to be officially approved at the CB meeting on 28 Feb. Jorgen will remain Secretary until he takes over as CB Chair on 1 July.

The CB Chair team. From left to right: Jorgen D'Hondt (CB Secretary), Claire Shepherd-Themistocleous (Deputy CB Chair) and Claudia-Elisabeth Wulz (acting CB Chair).

Please note that the CB Chat, to which you are cordially invited, will take place on Wednesday 26 Feb. at 18h in the Glass Box at Restaurant 1.

The CB Chair team is pleased to work with the new CMS Spokesperson Tiziano Camporesi and his deputies Kerstin Borras and Paris Sphicas. At the management retreat in Villars at the end of January we were represented and had the opportunity of extensive discussions with the Spokesperson team and other Management Board members.

Draft minutes of the last CB meeting at CERN (13 Dec.) are here.

Some highlights of the CB meeting during this CMS Physics Week are outlined below. In particular, there will be discussions about the upgrade strategy and an evolution of the system we currently call ESP (Experiment Services and Pledges), which should lead to dedicated institutional responsibilities and better recognition for individuals in the area of experimental physics. The transition to the start of management positions in September rather than January will also be discussed.

The implementation of the recommendations of the Communications Group Review held last December is under way. A call for new co-chairs of the Career Committee has gone out to the Collaboration. Please think of nominating colleagues or yourself. Ideas for streamlining our awards committees are also welcome. Furthermore, we are working on new rules and guidelines for publications and the use of public CMS data, together with the relevant committees and groups. There is also work going on to help newcomers, in particular students, integrate in CMS. The Young CMS Committee is heavily involved in this effort. We are also pleased to inform you that in the future there will be a separate newsletter for Art@CMS, which will be issued whenever there are items of interest to present.

We are keen to hear from you. Please contact us at any time at cms-cbchairteam@cern.ch, or by stopping by the CB Office: 40-2-B28. On Skype we are: claudia-elisabeth.wulz, shepherd-themistocleous and jorgen.dhondt

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Selected key issues passed at the December 2013 CMS Week

• Electorate of the Spokesperson remains unchanged
• Phase-2 Upgrade organization for 2014
• Publications Committee structure for 2014 and names of (co)-chairs of the different boards
• Three new positions in the Physics Coordination Office (Legacy Papers Officer, POG Officer, Upgrade Physics Studies Officer)
• Deputy Run Coordinator in charge of DPG coordination
• L3 appointments in the PAG's
• Publication plan for the remainder of 2013 and 2014
• Named lectures
• CMS-TOTEM Memorandum of Understanding
• Membership of committees or groups: CMSDAS, International Committee, CMS Theorists, Coordinated Funding

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Meeting of the CB (#94) on Friday, 28 February at 13:00 in the Filtration Plant

The session will be webcast to CMS in parallel with the usual dedicated, password-protected Vidyo link for CB Institutional Representatives. This will allow everyone to watch the meeting. Some of the items on the agenda:

• Presentations of candidates for associate membership in CMS: Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) and Tsinghua University, China
• Report from the Upgrade Project Leader
• Discussion of new ESP scheme
• Discussion of the transition plan for September start terms of L1 offices
• Approval / taking note of L1 trigger subsystem co-manager, second Deputy Offline Coordinator, and Project Manager and Technical Coordinator of the CMS-TOTEM project
• Approval of the Thesis Award winner(s)
• Report from the International Committee

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Art at CMS conquers art space

More photos here

On 20 February the Hungarian Cultural Forum in Vienna, the Balassi Institut – Collegium Hungaricum Wien, organized a Science&Art group exhibition with the topic ‘Nature – Science – Innovation’. Besides fifteen other Austrian and Hungarian artists Michael Hoch had the honour to present four of his artworks on CMS as well as artistic CMS photos and four videos he made during LS1 on two big LCD screens. During the opening vernissage Michael gave a presentation on CMS and how Art@CMS creates a dialogue between particle physics and the art world: “Science uncovers nature but it also needs creativity to come up with innovation”. Moreover, via a CMS virtual visit our Hungarian colleagues Noemi Beni and Zoltan Szillasi presented live views from the UXC55 cavern to the 130 guests at the art reception.
His excellence Vince Szalay-Bobrovniczky, Ambassador of Hungary to Austria, mentioned in his speech that art is much too important to be left just to the artists, just as well as science is too important to be left to the scientists alone. And Dr. Marton Mehes, the director of the Balassi Institut and the host of this exhibition, highlighted the importance of the dialogue between forefront science and modern art and sees this exhibition as a fruitful cross-border event: “Following the common roots of art and science allows to create exciting future encounters”. Dr. Mehes agreed to support a follow-up Science&Art event in Hungary in collaboration with the local CMS institutes.

The exhibition is open during weekdays from 20 February until 4 April. On ten days during the exhibition the Collegium Hungaricum organizes Science&Art workshops for children between 6 and 9 years of age.

Further presentations of Art@CMS will take place during the “WienerWunderKammer” from 31 March to 4 April, during the Science Night and the CERN 60th anniversary event at the Aula der Wissenschaften in Vienna.