New initiative benefits Greek students
The National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) is Greece's oldest and most prestigious educational institution in the field of technology, and has a long tradition in nuclear and high-energy physics research and in the development of detectors and electronics instrumentation. Nicholas Christofilos, whose pioneering work contributed to the development of induction acceleration at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US, was an NTUA graduate, and Theodore Kouyoumzellis, professor at NTUA, was the Greek scientific delegate at CERN for many years and put his personal stamp on the development of high-energy physics both at NTUA and in Greece. Now this tradition is continuing with a new initiative, through which physics and engineering students from NTUA can benefit from time at CERN.
In 2002 NTUA set up, through former rector Themistoklis Xanthopoulos and his colleagues Simos Simopoulos (former vice-rector) and Evangelos Gazis, an agreement for a CERN-NTUA educational protocol, under which students from NTUA can participate in CERN's educational activities (as summer, technical and doctoral students and as fellows). This protocol provides a special arrangement for the acceptance of NTUA students, with financial support from NTUA complementing support from CERN.
The summer of 2003 saw the first results of the agreement when four NTUA students from the faculty of Applied Mathematical and Physical Sciences received sponsorship to attend the CERN summer student programme. In addition, two more NTUA students from the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering received normal CERN summer studentships, and so a small NTUA student community made its appearance at CERN.
The excellent results of the students and their enthusiastic feedback have confirmed that NTUA should continue this effort. The stay in the unique learning environment of CERN is seen as providing the students with a big push in their careers. Not only is the laboratory a major source of new scientific and technological knowledge, but the vitality of more than 7000 researchers using CERN's facilities creates a continuous exchange of ideas and people from all over the world. The current NTUA rector Andreas Andreopoulos and vice-rectors Panagiotis Kottis and Manolis Dris are therefore planning to continue with and improve this successful educational agreement.
Italian president tours CERN
The president of the Italian republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, visited CERN on 2 December, where he met some of the Italians working at CERN. Italians are the second-largest nationality at CERN, numbering around 1500, which is about one-sixth of the total number of visitors and staff working at the laboratory. The president visited the CMS assembly hall and the LHC superconducting magnet test hall before meeting the CERN community, in particular Italian personnel, in the main auditorium. There he emphasized the role of CERN as a transnational model for research that has not only achieved great results in science but is also a powerful vehicle for progress in other fields. "CERN stands as the demonstration of the great results that science can achieve [...] when it succeeds in getting all the main players in international scientific co-operation involved," he said.
CERN's new director-general Robert Aymar (second left) was present when the 2003 edition of the "France at CERN" exhibition was opened on 23 September by Bernard Frois (second right), director of the Department for Energy, Transport and Environment of the French Ministry for Research and New Technologies. Here they are seen together with, from left to right, Jean-Claude Brisson, ILO, Françoise Le Moign, assistant general consul at Geneva, Alain Guillouët, head of the economic mission in Switzerland, French Embassy, Thierry Boquien, Ubifrance, French agency for international development of companies and Claude Détraz, director for fixed targets and future programmes at CERN.
Petr Mares, deputy prime minister for research and development, human rights and human resources of the Czech Republic, visited CERN on 9 December 2003. While at the laboratory, he toured the assembly halls and underground cavern for the ATLAS experiment, the test facility for the LHC superconducting magnets, the main computer centre and the underground cavern for the ALICE experiment. Here, he is seen, on the left, in an ALICE cleanroom together with Frantisek Kozel, deputy minister of vice prime minister, and Wolfgang Klempt from CERN/ALICE (right).
The International Symposium "40 years of colliding beams" (COLLID04), a joint SLAC-Novosibirsk meeting, will be held at the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics in Novosibirsk, Russia, on 17-18 May. The symposium will be dedicated to the anniversary of the first electron-electron beam collisions. Its programme will review the history of the colliding beam experiments, discuss the status of the current programmes and focus on the future prospects for high-energy physics at e+e- colliding beam machines. For more information e-mail collid04@inp.nsk.su or see www.inp.nsk.su/events/confs/collid04.
The 9th Topical Seminar on "Innovative particle and radiation detectors" will take place at the University of Siena, Italy, from 23-26 May. Attendance will be by invitation. Interested physicists should write to the organizing committee, indicating name, address, affiliation and, if applicable, the title of a contribution. The deadline for submitting an abstract is 15 March. For further information see www.bo.infn.it/sminiato/siena04.html.
Neutrino 2004 - The 21st International Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics, will be held in Collège de France, Paris, on 14-19 June. The scientific programme will cover the latest developments in neutrino physics, astrophysics and related topics through a set of invited talks and a poster session. Participation is by invitation. For more details see http://neutrino2004.in2p3.fr.
QCD 04, the 11th Montpellier International Conference, will be held on 5-9 July. As in previous years, different theoretical and experimental aspects of quantum chromodynamics will be discussed, and contributions from young post-docs will be encouraged. For further information see www.lpm.univ-montp2.fr:6714/~qcd/qcd.html.
HEP-MAD 04, the 2nd Madagascar International Conference in High-Energy Physics, will be held from 26 September to 2 October. The conference, which is part specialized meeting and part introductory school, will discuss different aspects of high-energy and astroparticle physics. For more details see www.lpm.univ-montp2.fr:6714/~qcd/hep.html.
CHEP '04, the next in the series of computing in high-energy physics conferences, will take place in Interlaken, Switzerland, from 27 September to 1 October. The CHEP conferences provide an international forum to exchange information on computing experience and the needs of the community, and to review recent, ongoing and future activities. CHEP '04 is organized by CERN, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. Registration should open early in 2004. For further details see www.chep2004.org.
The IEEE 2004 Nuclear Science Symposium, Medical Imaging Conference, Symposium on Nuclear Power Systems and 14th International Workshop on Room Temperature Semiconductor X- and Gamma-Ray Detectors will be held in Rome on 16-22 October. This conference represents a unique occasion for scientists and engineers to participate and present their work in a variety of subjects related to nuclear science and medical imaging. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is 15 May. For further information see http://nss-mic-rtsd-2004.df.unipi.it/nsshome2004.html.
New products
COMSOL has announced the release of FEMLAB 3, the latest version of FEMLAB, which uses the finite-element analysis method to solve models of physical phenomena. Compared with its predecessor, this new product can compute some models as much as 20 times faster while using up to 20 times less memory. The new software also has access to a library of more than 200 completely solved and fully documented models of commonly encountered systems in fields such as waveguides, antennas and micro-electromechanical systems. For further details call +44 1865 338 036 or see www.uk.comsol.com.
Thales Computers now offers support for the Linux operating system for its low-cost, low-power VCE405 "connectivity engine", a rugged single board computer for I/O operations. The company has also announced support for 2eSST transfers on VME systems running LynxOS. For further information call +1 800 848 2330 or see the website at www.thalescomputers.com.
X-tronix has released a new vacuum components catalogue, which lists more than 1500 items with an emphasis on flanges, viewports, feedthroughs, gauges and many supplies for vacuum and thin-film applications. Some 300 engineering drawings, pictures and graphs support the product descriptions. For further details contact Xavier Gorra or Mirjam Tissot, tel +41 21 802 5490, or see www.x-tronix.com.