There are four categories of members of the CERN Scientific Committees:
Chairperson
The Chairperson of the Research Board is the Director-General.
The Chairperson of the Recognized Experiments Committee is the Director for Research and Computing (DRC).
The Chairpersons of the other committees are appointed by the DRC with an initial mandate of 2 years that can be extended to up to 4 or 5 years. The DRC sends a letter of appointment to the future Chairperson, asking for confirmation of agreement.
Scientific Secretary
The Scientific Secretary is appointed by the Director-General (Research Board), or by the DRC (all other committees), with the exception of the INTC where the Scientific Secretary is the ISOLDE Physics Coordinator. They do not have a fixed term mandate, and they are Senior Physicists from CERN.
Members (also called referees)
Suggested by their respective Chairperson to the DRC. If there is consensus, the DRC contacts them to emphasize the importance of the task and discuss any eventual practical issue. The DRC then sends a letter of appointment asking for confirmation of agreement from the new member.
Ex-officio
Their mandate is given by their function in CERN’s management. This includes some Directors, Department Heads and machine coordinators, depending on the scope of the committee. They do not need a letter of appointment, and their mandate ends when they change function.