Working at CERN

Updated: CMS Guide for Newcomers

Below is from 2009: Steps to get registered at CERN

• The first thing to do is fill out the form found here and take it to the CERN User's Office to get your CERN registration document.  Please take note of the things they require for registration - notably, a copy of your current contract with your institute stating dates of employment.  For Fermilab employees, Tami Kramer can sign as deputy team leader and produce a letter of employment.  For all other institutes, the CERN Registration form has to be signed by the team leader of the insitute.  Once registered, your CERN document gives you access to the CERN site.

• You should also take the Basic Safety course and obtain an Access Card which grants entry to access controlled areas like experimental areas and testbeams.  This card is available in Building 55, on the right at the main entrance.  For access to the underground area at the CMS site, you will need Level 4 training.  After the course, you must validate your card in the machine. 

• If you plan to work in areas exposed to radiation, you'll need a medical certificate signed by a qualified medical service in order to get a film badge - this form is also available on the page mentioned above under FAQ - RP course.   The film badge office is in Building 24 E-011 (internal phone number 72155)

• If you plan to be working long term on CMS, you should also register with the CMS Secretariat in Building 40 5-B08

• In order to use your laptop at CERN, the MAC addresses of all of the network interfaces you plan to use (wireless and hard-wired) must be registered with the CERN Network service.  You can do this yourself, if you have a NICE account (an account on the MS Windows infrastructure at CERN).  If you do not have a NICE account, the network form you fill out must be sent to a CERN Staff member for approval.  Note that most US CMS people have USER (visitor) status and not CERN Staff status, so they cannot approve your form.  However, if the person with user status has a NICE account, they can fill out the form for you and register your laptop.

• Once you are registered with the User's Office (it may take a day to get into the CERN HR database), you can apply for computer accounts.  Fill out the form available here and take it to one of the computer group administrators for CMS - Martti Pimia (Building 40 3-A20) or Werner Jank (Building 40 3-A24).  The Computer Group Code for CMS is ZH.  NICE is the MS Windows infrastructure at CERN, LXPLUS is Linux/AFS, AIS is for Administrative services like CERN's Electronic Document Handling system (EDH).  For EDH you will be given a login password and an authorization password which allows you to authorize documents.