  The goal of the ALICE experiment at LHC is to study strongly interacting
matter at high energy densities as well as the signatures and properties of the
quark-gluon plasma. This goal manifests itself in a rich physics program.
Although ALICE will mainly study heavy-ion collisions, a dedicated program will
concentrate on proton-proton physics. The first part will introduce the ALICE
experiment from a pp measurement's point of view. Two unique properties are its
low pT cut-off and the excellent PID capabilities. The various topics of the
proton-proton physics program, which will allow a close scrutiny of existing
theoretical models, will be described. Furthermore, the interpretation of
measurements of heavy-ion collisions necessitates the comparison to
measurements of pp collisions. The second part will concentrate on the day-1
physics program of ALICE. At startup, neither the LHC luminosity nor its energy
will have their nominal values. Furthermore, the ALICE detector is in the
process of being aligned and calibrated. Still several physics topics can be
studied from the very beginning. These will be presented as well as the effort
that is already ongoing to be ready for the first collision. The statistics
needed for each of the topics will be given with respect to the foreseen LHC
startup scenario.

High Energy Physics - Experiment