 Rabi suggested to Edoardo Amaldi that Brookhaven might be a model that Europeans could emulate . Rabi saw science as a way of inspiring and uniting a Europe that was still recovering from the war . An opportunity came in 1950 when he was named the United States Delegate to the United Nations Educational , Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO ) . At a UNESCO meeting at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence in June 1950 , he called for the establishment of regional laboratories . These efforts bore fruit ; in 1952 , representatives of eleven countries came together to create the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche <unk> ( CERN ) . Rabi received a letter from Bohr , Heisenberg , Amaldi and others congratulating him on the success of his efforts . He had the letter framed and hung it on the wall of his home office . 
