Dear Colleagues

2013 has again been a great year.

• the year started with a very successful proton-Lead run, leading to very interesting and intriguing results;
• the European Strategy Update endorsed by the CERN council in May 2013 has set clear and ambitious goals for the next 20 years. Furthermore, following the recommendations in the strategy paper, several prospective projects (Future Circular Collider, Neutrino R&D) are being launched to prepare for choices in a few years for the longer term future;
• the long shut down work is proceeding very well and according to the planned schedule for both the accelerators and the experiments. We can therefore be confident that the LHC will restart in January 2015 and that the first collisions will take place early Spring;
• and finally the Nobel prize awarded to F.Englert and P. Higgs was a great honour and recognition for our community.

Let me thank all of you for your strong contribution and dedication to these successes. The future looks really bright!

Time has come for me to pass the baton to Livio Mapelli  and Roger Forty. It has been a great honour to serve as Department Head during the past five years and, thanks to your help and support, it has been an easy and pleasant job.

I wish you the best for the future and, to start with, a merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Philippe