sentences:  Thereafter he became director general of CERN, serving from 1 January 1999 through the end of 2003.From 1995-1997 Maiani chaired the Italian Comitato Tecnico Scientifico, Fondo Ricerca Applicata.At the end of 2007 he was proposed as president of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, but his nomination was suspended temporally after he signed a letter criticizing the rector of 'La Sapienza' University in Rome, who invited Pope Benedict XVI to give a "lectio magistralis" in 2008.