The Biggest Bang for our Buck
The United States and CERN use the biggest machine ever constructed to recreate miniature Big Bangs and study the fundamental laws of Nature under the most extreme conditions in the universe.
2,172
US-affiliated personnel
175
US university and laboratory partners
$310,000,000+
CERN procurement from US industries
CERN is delivering in-kind contributions and expertise valued at multi-million dollars for the US-hosted Long-Baseline Neutrino Project and Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment.
A Great Deal for American Science
American scientists from leading US universities and Department of Energy national laboratories play a vital role in the groundbreaking high energy physics experiments at CERN—bringing American expertise and innovation to the world stage.
This powerful partnership also opens doors for European scientists to contribute to cutting-edge neutrino research right here in the United States through the CERN neutrino platform.
A Feat of American-CERN Engineering
The Large Hadron Collider—the world’s most powerful particle accelerator—is CERN’s flagship program.
It smashes atoms at almost the speed of light, revealing the inner workings of subatomic particles.
US researchers and engineers designed and built crucial portions of the LHC and its four experiments: CMS, ATLAS, ALICE and LHCb. Americans also led critical R&D programs for the High-Luminosity LHC, an upgrade that will dramatically increase the collision rate.
Today, US researchers are shipping Made in America accelerator magnets and detector components to CERN for the HiLumi upgrade.
The US-CERN community
More than 2,100 researchers from US universities and laboratories work on the experiments hosted at CERN.
The experimental collaborations are formed from teams of independent researchers, which include students, postdocs, professors, staff scientists, engineers and technicians. The scientists work together to run the experiments, analyze the data, and refine our understanding of the fundamental laws of physics.
Most American scientists are based at their home institutions in the United States. They build detectors, perform research, and train the next generation of nuclear and particle physicists without ever having to leave American soil.
Every major technological advancement begins with a discovery in physics
Particle physics drives national, regional, and local progress in science and industry and is the catalyst for many technologies in:
- Superconducting materials
- Computing
- Medicine
- Radiation sensing
- Cryogenic cooling
A 2026 Economic Impact report estimated that CERN technologies generate roughly $90 million per year in industry revenue.
Economic Benefits
US firms supply critical technology for CERN’s facilities, creating a two-way flow of investment and innovation.
- CERN has procured more than $310 million from US firms over the past decade.
- General Electric supplies high-performance magnets and vacuum systems, with technology benefits flowing back to GE’s U.S. facilities.
- Intel collaborates on parallel processing architecture and has tested whether its AI-imaging chips are viable for use in space.
- IBM and CERN are developing quantum computing applications to meet CERN’s growing computational needs.
- Google and Micron are members of CERN Openlab, accelerating the computing technologies needed to manage CERN’s massive data volumes.
CERN and Space Exploration
NASA uses CERN detector technology on the International Space Station to measure radiation in real time. These measurements are critical for the Artemis program and other deep-space missions. The resulting data informs decisions on:
- Spacecraft shielding
- Electronics resilience
- Astronaut exposure over long-duration missions beyond Earth’s magnetosphere.
CERN’s work on particle detection and large-scale distributed computing also shapes how space agencies approach radiation modeling and mission-scale data systems.
US CERN research is funded by:
