Particle accelerators at CERN: From the early days to the LHC and beyond

•Provides a short history of CERN colliders•Examines the contribution of particle accelerators to our understanding of the Standard Model•Describes the social and economic benefits of collaborative research in particle physics•Discusses future challenges and potential innovations

The Standard Model of particle physics is a theory, developed in the 1970s, which aims to explain how fundamental particles, governed by four fundamental forces interact. The discovery of the Higgs boson has opened up a lively debate as to what is the best way forward to try to crack the Standard Model and to reveal the more fundamental nature of the physical phenomena. This article examines the contribution of particle accelerators to our understanding of this model, by both taking stock of past achievements and future challenges, with a specific focus on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).