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Canada should join the European particle physics lab CERN, the institution that found the Higgs boson particle among other discoveries, says a top U.S. physicist who used to lead a major Canadian lab.

And Rolf-Dieter Heuer, the director of CERN since 2009, supports the idea.

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Nigel Lockyer is director of Fermilab, the U.S. government particle physics lab in Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago. Until 2013, he ran TRIUMF in Vancouver, Canada’s national particle physics lab.

“I would say Canada should consider becoming an associate member of CERN,” Lockyer said Thursday at an annual gathering called the Canadian Science Policy Conference.

“It addresses whether you want to be part of a world program that you see as attractive. I think CERN is the model for the future for collaboration.”

“It has proven to be successful, and our field, particle physics, is very global. And Canada should be there. That’s kind of the way I feel about it, and I thought it was important to try to connect to CERN.”