On 24 January, His Excellency Mr Jüri Ratas, Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia, visited CERN for a tour of the site and facilities.

The Republic of Estonia has been an active member of the CERN community since joining the CMS collaboration in 1997. The country operates a Tier-2 Grid computing centre in Tallinn, and a team of Estonian scientists has joined the TOTEM experiment.

After being welcomed by three of CERN’s Directors – Frédérick Bordry, Martin Steinacher and Eckhard Elsen – who introduced CERN’s history and activities, the Prime Minister was given a tour of the ATLAS underground experiment area, before signing the guest book (see photo).

The Prime Minister was joined by his staff, representatives of the Permanent Mission of Estonia to the UN in Geneva, and two Directors from the Estonian National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics.