British physicist and former STFC Excecutive Chair Mark Thomson began his five-year mandate as CERN General Director on 1 January 2026, taking over from Fabiola Gianotti.
Much of his earlier career was already dedicated to CERN, where he initially contributed to precision measurements of the W and Z bosons in the 1990s, as part of the OPAL experiment at CERN’s Large Electron–Positron Collider. At CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), he has been a member of the ATLAS collaboration.
He has also played a pivotal role in the design and optimisation of detectors for future colliders, particularly for linear electron–positron colliders such as the International Linear Collider (ILC) and the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC).
In his first address to the CERN community last week, he outlined his priorities for the coming five years.
Foremost among these is the construction of the High-Luminosity LHC, together with the associated upgrades to the ATLAS and CMS detectors. The second priority is to advance the plans for the Future Circular Collider, building on the strong and widespread support within our community. Thirdly, he emphasised the importance of maintaining a robust and innovative programme of non-collider experiments at CERN.
On his LinkedIn account, Thomson commented: “[…] Taken together, this represents a truly exciting programme of fundamental research with genuine discovery potential and significant broader societal impact. It also represents a challenge that will require the best possible environment for success, which is why I am making organisational excellence one of the five pillars of the CERN Strategy for 2026-2030. I am also placing a strong emphasis on promoting the best possible inclusive working culture for everyone at CERN.”
The Cockcroft Institute community would like to wish Mark Thomson all the best for the coming years, with success and strength in addressing the challenges ahead!