AT Division

The Accelerator Technology division, forming together with Mechanical Technologies (MT), Proton Synchrotron (PS) and SPS+LEP (SL) divisions the Accelerator Sector (AC), came into being in 1990 as a result of the restructuring of CERN following the completion and commissioning of the LEP machine in the second half of 1989.

The AT division included all CERN activities in the fields of cryogenics, superconducting accelerating cavities, accelerator magnets and vacuum systems, and surveying. Other groups included the former LEP cooling and ventilation group and some support activities (database applications, software engineering, controls, laser for the CLIC project and so on). In their technological domains, the AT groups carried a CERN-wide responsibility for maintenance and operations support.

In December 1994 CERN's governing body, Council, officially approved the construction of CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - a technologically challenging superconducting ring, which will be installed in the existing LEP (Large Electron-Positron Collider) tunnel - to provide proton-proton collisions at energies 10 times greater than any previous machine.

LHC Division

In 1996, the Large Hadron Collider Division (LHC) was created mainly from the AT Division with the aim of concentrating on the core activities for the LHC machine: superconducting magnets, cryogenics, and vacuum. For CERN-wide efficiency, the division kept responsibility for the operation and development of the cryognic and vacuum systems of all CERN accelerators and experiments. It also includes the small application group which studies the use of accelerators for energy production.

AT Division - Department

In 2003 the new Accelerator Technology (AT) Department emerged from the former LHC Division in the reorgnization of the Accelerator Sector.

Its mandate includes applying expertise in accelerator technologies of superconductors, magnets, cryogenics & vacuum to serve the goals of CERN: operating the accelerator complex; building the LHC and upgrade its injector chain; build the CNGS facility - providing support to the physics experiments; contributing to accelerator and detector R&D and developing knowledge, ensuring perennity of expertise and maintaining excellence in these domains.

In 2009 the CERN management changed and adopted a new organizational structure. The Accelerators & Beams (AB) and Accelerator Technology (AT) departments, as well as some groups from Technical Services (TS) Department, were grouped into the Accelerators and Technology Sector. This Sector was re-organised into three departments: