The Geneva-area research center that houses
the world’s largest atom smasher is grappling
with ways to punish Russia’s government while
protecting Russian researchers who work to help
solve the deepest mysteries of the universe.
CERN, the historic acronym for what is now the
European Organization for Nuclear Research,
has a mission to facilitate collaboration among
its 23 member countries and beyond. The war
in Ukraine, an associate member state, has the
organization trying to calibrate its response
to join international action against Russia,
which was an official CERN observer before the
invasion, without sacrificing science.
Some 1,000 scientists, or nearly 7% of the 18,000
researchers involved with CERN, are affiliated
with Russian institutions — most, though not all,
are Russian. If they are cut off from participating