CERN, established in 1954, is the world's largest particle physics laboratory. Its aim is to study the fundamental structure of the universe, as well as promote science as a means for peace and train the next generation of physicists and engineers. CERN consists of 22 member states, mostly from Europe. Some 12,000 visiting scientists from over 70 countries and with 105 different nationalities — half of the world’s particle physicists — come to CERN for their research. In 2012, the Higgs boson, was discovered by the experiments on CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC).