Raimond Snellings joins CERN Council

As of 1 January 2026, Raimond Snellings will join the CERN Council as a representative of the Netherlands. The Council is the highest decision-making body of the world’s largest particle physics research centre. Within this international governing board, discussions range from fundamental physics and multi-billion-euro budgets to negotiations between member states and the possible construction of a new particle accelerator stretching ninety kilometres. 

To outsiders, CERN is best known as the home of the Large Hadron Collider and the place where the Higgs boson was discovered. Less well known is that the World Wide Web was also developed there, originally intended as a practical communication tool for scientists collaborating across the globe.

“CERN is essentially a mini state,” says Raimond Snellings, Professor of Heavy Ion Physics and Head of the Department of Physics at Utrecht University. “It really is a city in its own right, with its own legislation, diplomatic status, and thousands of researchers, technicians and support staff.” From next year onwards, he will take a seat on the CERN Council and help decide how this ‘city’ will continue to evolve. 

Course of fundamental physics

The CERN Council is the organisation’s highest decision-making authority. Four times a year (and more often if necessary), representatives of all 24 member states come together. They discuss scientific strategy, personnel policy, legal issues, pension funds and budgets.

Snellings’ appointment comes at a time when CERN faces a major decision. The current particle accelerator will reach the end of its operational lifetime in about fifteen years, and further progress will require a new machine. The proposed accelerator would be three times the size of the current Large Hadron Collider, with a ninety-kilometre tunnel beneath France and Switzerland and a price tag running into many billions of euros. “Developments like this set the course of fundamental physics for decades to come,” Snellings says. 

Here, you see how science, politics and economics come together

Scientific and practical interests

For Snellings, the role marks a clear step away from day-to-day calculations. “It’s very different from working with physics data,” he says. “You’re sitting at the table with ministers, lawyers and translators. Everything is quite formal.” That is precisely what he finds appealing. “You see how science, politics and economics come together.”

Representing the Netherlands, he safeguards both scientific and practical interests. Each member state contributes a percentage of its gross national product to CERN; for the Netherlands this amounts to roughly 60 to 70 million euros per year. “Naturally, you want to see a return on that investment,” says Snellings. This comes, for example, through research positions for Dutch scientists, as well as contracts for Dutch companies, ranging from high-tech firms to vocationally and professionally trained technicians.

CERN as a learning environment

Snellings also sees his new role as an opportunity for students and researchers from the Netherlands and from Utrecht University. “CERN isn’t just for particle physicists,” he emphasises. “There are also chemists, biologists, computer scientists, lawyers, communication specialists, and many others working there.” Students can take part in internships or temporary research stays, lasting from three months up to a year. 

CERN isn't just for particle physicists. Chemists, biologists, computer scientists, lawyers, and communications specialists work there, and students can do internships or research

Physical education teacher

That Snellings would one day join CERN’s highest governing body was not obvious. “I actually wanted to become a physical education teacher,” he says. It was only in his final year of secondary school that he became fascinated by physics. He studied and earned his PhD in Utrecht, then worked in the United States on a new particle accelerator near New York, before returning to the Netherlands.