Eminent Slovak physicist, Karel Šafařík, passed away. He worked for many years at CERN.

On Monday, October 7, 2024, after a long illness, the eminent Slovak particle physicist Prof. RNDr. Karel Šafařík, CSc., passed away.

Karel Šafařík was a world-class physicist with Slovak roots. Between 1971 to 1976, he studied theoretical physics at Comenius University in Bratislava, and later spent 12 years in Dubna, Soviet Union, where he worked on experiments at the Serpukhov accelerator.

The ALICE Project

In 1990, he moved to Paris, where he focused on phenomenological issues in quantum chromodynamics Collège de France. He began collaborating on the Omega spectrometer experiments at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland.

From 1993, he worked as a scientist at CERN, serving as the physics coordinator for the ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) project at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). He led the physics and computing department of the ALICE experiment at CERN.

In 2013, he was recognized by the former president Ivan Gašparovič, who awarded him the 2nd Class Ľudovít Štúr Order, for his outstanding contributions to the development of science and for promoting the good name of the Slovak Republic abroad.

May he rest in peace!