New CERN chief to shut down world’s largest particle accelerator for major upgrades

GENEVA — Professor Mark Thomson will take over as director-general of CERN on Jan. 1, assuming leadership of the world's premier particle physics laboratory as it prepares to shut down the largest scientific machine ever built.

Thomson’s first major task involves overseeing the decommissioning of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for a massive upgrade. Known as the High-Luminosity LHC, the project will install new superconducting magnets to increase particle collision rates tenfold and reinforce detectors to identify subtle new physical signatures.

The LHC is not expected to restart until near the end of Thomson’s five-year term. In the interim, researchers will continue to analyze the vast archives of data already collected by the collider.

Beyond the immediate upgrade, Thomson must advocate for a controversial successor project known as the Future Circular Collider (FCC). With an estimated first-phase cost of £14 billion, the project faces significant financial hurdles and skepticism over its ability to deliver groundbreaking discoveries.

CERN member states are scheduled to vote on the FCC project in 2028.

The appointment of Mark Thomson as Director-General arrives at a strategic crossroads for CERN and the broader landscape of high-energy physics. The current operational hiatus of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) should not be viewed as a setback, but rather as a calculated capital injection into the future of scientific discovery. Rather than simply maintaining the status quo, CERN is doubling down on infrastructure upgrades designed to probe the fundamental inconsistencies within the Standard Model.

However, Thomson’s primary challenge will be diplomatic and fiscal rather than technical. While the High-Luminosity LHC upgrade is already high on the agenda, CERN’s long-term viability hinges on the proposed Future Circular Collider (FCC). Unlike the hunt for the Higgs boson, which offered a clear scientific milestone, the FCC represents a high-stakes gamble. It carries a multibillion-dollar price tag with no guarantee of definitive breakthroughs regarding dark matter or dark energy. Thomson’s central mandate, therefore, will be to lobby member states and convince skeptical governments that investing billions in a machine that may yield "null results" is a prerequisite for maintaining Europe’s edge in fundamental science.

This debate is playing out against a backdrop of intensifying international competition, specifically from the United States and China. The decision to greenlight the FCC is more than a scientific choice; it is a move in a geopolitical chess match that will determine the global epicenter of particle physics for the next half-century. For Thomson, the goal is clear: ensure that the path to the universe’s next great discovery continues to run through Geneva.

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