Seventh Science Open Days officially opened with ART@CMS Exhibition

The Science Open Days Festival was officially opened today at the Sports and Cultural Centre in Podgorica with the Art@CMS exhibition, organized by the Ministry of Science of Montenegro in cooperation with the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the University of Montenegro.
This year’s edition of the festival is in the spirit of linking science and art, under the slogan of Science Reveals – Art Creates. The main exhibition, Art@CMS is dedicated to the CMS experiment, one of the largest LHC experiments in CERN, to which Montenegro officially joined this year as a full member.
- Science is the driving force of social change, and it is only by systematic investment in science that we can be part of the European research family. Scientific research implies searching for ideas, and only one idea is capable of triggering the avalanche of others, which can lead to discoveries that in most cases open the door for a new future, with new materials and new jobs, while transforming the economy, said the Minister of Science of Montenegro Dr. Sanja Damjanović in her opening address.

The content of the festival is attractive for all ages and professions; it is creative and serves to inspire and encourage young people to engage in science and research, said Minister Damjanović.

- My colleagues from CERN will point out the importance of internationalization and networking of scientists and will show what the combination of ideas around the world and knowledge and technology accumulation can create. In this most prestigious scientific institution – CERN, young people are dominant, said the Minister.

The manager of CERN’s CMS experiment Mr. Joel Butler said that he was pleased that Montenegro had joined the CMS family and that it would contribute to discovering the secrets of the Universe, dark energy, dark matter, and asymmetry.
- For the next several decades, Montenegro will work with us in further developing particle physics, even beyond the Standard Model. We will primarily study the properties of Higgs boson, which means that we soon need to improve and create a new CMS, already after 2016, announced Mr. Butler.

Christoph Schäfer from the Department for International Cooperation of CERN thanked the organizers – on behalf of the Director-General of this prestigious institution, Ms. Fabiola Gianotti – for the warm welcome and for the initiative of Minister Damjanović to further strengthen cooperation with CERN. According to him, it is a great honour that Montenegro joined the CMS experiment and that it was Prime Minister Duško Marković who signed the agreement in July in Geneva.
- At CERN, there are currently 11 beneficiaries from Montenegro and we hope that the number will increase in the future, said Mr. Schäfer.
The participants were also addressed by the rest of the scientific team from CERN, composed of: Mick Storr, Daniel Denegri, Tadeusz Kurtyka and Michael Hoch, the author of the exhibition, who will hold workshops and lectures for pupils of elementary and secondary schools in the Sports and Cultural Centre of the University of Donja Gorica in the coming three days.

Professor Denegri will give a lecture “From the discovery of bosons W and Z to Higgs boson – what's next” in the premises of the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts tomorrow at 12 o’clock.

Today, at 6 pm, in the Petrovića Kruševac castle, an exhibition “A Diary of a Bellflower” will be officially opened, on the endemic bellflower from Lovćen, the natural and cultural values of the mountain, with special emphasis on the history of National Park Lovćen and protection of the biodiversity of this area. The exhibition is implemented by the NGO Ecological – Legal Centre, fashion designer Milena Đurđić and photographer Dejan Kalezić.

The complete programme of the festival is available at www.daninauke.me.