In addition to I. I. Rabi, Edoardo Amaldi also was a significant figure in the founding of CERN.Amaldi traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in July 1946 to present a paper at a conference. There he met accelerator physicist JohnCockroft. That visit planted the first seed of the enterprise that was to become CERN. 1 1. C. Rubbia,CERN Report, CERN-91-09 (1991), p. 9. Around the same time, several others voiced their ideas for a European laboratory. Notable among those ideas was Louis de Broglie’s proposal, presented at the European Cultural Conference in Lausanne, Switzerland, in December 1949,2 to set up a new European laboratory so as to halt the exodus of physics talent to North America. The year prior to the Florence resolution, 1949, was crucial. Amaldi’s research group in Rome examined the various aspects, including energy and costs, of the accelerators to be built at the proposed European laboratory. During that work, Amaldi frequently exchanged letters with Gilberto Bernardini, who was at Columbia University and in close contact with Rabi. 3 3. Reference 2, p. 421. After lengthy discussions with Amaldi and other scientists-notably the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s director of exact and natural sciences, Pierre Auger-Rabi drafted a resolution calling on UNESCO to help develop regional research facilities “to increase and make more fruitful the international collaboration of scientists.” He presented that resolution at UNESCO’s Florence meeting in June 1950.Amaldi and Auger took on the task of advancing the Florence resolution. At the executive committee meeting of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in September 1950, Amaldi suggested that IUPAP should consider how best to implement the Florence resolution. On 12 December 1950 Auger convened a meeting of important physicists and science administrators at the European Cultural Centre in Geneva. Amaldi and Gustavo Colonnetti, then president of the Italian Research Council, were invited from Italy. As a result of the meeting, Colonnetti immediately donated 2 million lire (approximately US$ 3200). Additional contributions from Belgium and France brought the funding to a modest total of about $10 000, enough to initiate the first steps in developing a large particle accelerator. In May 1951, Auger and Amaldi called a meeting of experts from Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Britain, the Netherlands, France, and Switzerland at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. They wrote a justification for the collaborative European project: The anticipated cost exceeded what any single country could afford. The experts also discussed the accelerator energy and budget and called for an intergovernmental conference, which met under the auspices of UNESCO in December 1951.Not everyone readily accepted the idea of a European laboratory. Niels Bohr, James Chadwick, and Hendrick Kramers, eminent members of the European physics community, questioned the practicality of starting a new laboratory from scratch. 4 4. Reference 1, p. 12. However, Amaldi and his UNESCO colleagues would not be dissuaded; during a meeting in the fall of 1951, they blended the opposition’s ideas into a modified version of the project.Amaldi played a decisive role in dispelling the last doubts of a somewhat reluctant British government.Amaldi held the post of secretary general of the organization before Felix Bloch succeeded him to become CERN’s first director general. Although Amaldi was an early candidate for that position, he turned down the offer. on Bloch’s insistence, Amaldi briefly served as vice director, from late 1954 to early 1955. He returned to Rome in 1954 and continued to influence CERN’s development by serving in various capacities from 1957 to 1975. He also was on CERN’s history advisory committee from 1980 until his death in 1989.CERN has developed into the largest physics research center in the world, where approximately half of the planet’s particle physicists do research. Amaldi’s dream of reestablishing a center of excellence in Europe has been fully realized.REFERENCESSection:ChooseTop of pageREFERENCES <<CITING ARTICLES1. C. Rubbia,CERN Report, CERN-91-09 (1991), p. 9. Google Scholar2. E. Amaldi, inProceedings of the International Conference on High Energy Collisions in Hadrons, CERN Yellow Reports, CERN-86-07, vol. 1, p. 415. Google Scholar3. Reference 2, p. 421. Google Scholar4. Reference 1, p. 12. Google Scholar© 2005 American Institute of Physics.