Now we are 20 - CERN's Member States
28 July 1999
Summer sunshine on the Jura mountains provides a backdrop to the flags of the Member States of CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, near Geneva. There are now 20 Member States, after Bulgaria (white, green and red flag, fourth from right) officially joined CERN on 18 June, 1999. CERN's conception stemmed from a proposal made 50 years ago, when Louis de Broglie, a French physicist and Nobel prize-winner, proposed the creation of a European science laboratory, at the European Cultural Conference at Lausanne in 1949. The laboratory began life in 1954 with 12 Member States, and has since grown to be one of the world's leading laboratories in particle physics. If you would like to visit CERN during your summer holidays - or at any other time - you can find out more from CERN or from the UK's Guide to Visiting CERN. (The flag to the lower right is that of the Canton of Geneva.)
Credit: CERN Photo
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