CERN Accélérateur de science

The continued pursuit of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) program in the upcoming years will require an ever-more precise understanding of the Standard Model of particle physics. One source of uncertainty is the accuracy of the theoretical predictions that are used as input in various experimental analyses. I will discuss recent advances in deriving the needed predictions at next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD perturbation theory, and will describe in detail the N-jettiness subtraction idea that has facilitated several results relevant for LHC studies.  I will present a selection of results that highlight the success of the theoretical community in meeting the challenge set by the LHC experiments, and conclude with a highlight of some future directions in the field of precision calculations.