THOMASVILLE — At the CERN laboratory, located on the France and Switzerland borders near Geneva, physicists and engineers probe the fundamental structure of the university using the largest and most complex scientific instruments to study the basic constituents of matter.

The name come from the French acronym that translates into European Council for Nuclear Research. This provisional body was founded in 1952 to establish a world-class fundamental physics research organization in Europe. In 1954 CERN opened. It’s also called the European Laboratory for Particle Physics.

This fall Thomas University’s Science Café series will take a look at the CERN and its research involving the Higgs boson particle, also known as the “God particle.” Dr. Harrison Prosper, Kirby W. Kemper Professor of Physics and Distinguished Research Professor at Florida State University, will present on this topic at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29, at the first Science Café of the Fall Semester. The lecture will be held in the Flowers Foods Executive Classroom inside Smith-Bonvillian Hall on TU’s Main Campus.

The next Science Café, Tuesday, Oct. 27, will feature Prosper facilitating a live discussion using Skype with scientists at CERN. That session will be held at 10 a.m. in order to accommodate the time difference between Thomasville and Switzerland.

For the Sept. 29 lecture, guests are invited to come early for a reception in the lobby of Smith-Bonvillian Hall with Dr. Prosper.

For more information about Science Café, contact April D. Penton at apenton@thomasu.edu.