Top suppliers for CMS win Crystal and Gold
The fifth annual CMS awards ceremony was held at CERN on 15 March. This year, six of the approximately 1000 companies who work for CMS were honoured with the Gold Award for demonstrating excellence by providing parts on schedule, within budget and within specification. Two of the prize-winners also received the Crystal Award, which is given to a company that has taken further efforts to develop new designs, explore novel technologies and collaborate in research and development programmes with CERN, even when such action holds no direct benefit for the company.
The IBM Technology Group earned their Crystal Award by collaborating over the application of microelectronic technology to instrumentation for CMS. During the course of its continuing relationship with CERN, IBM has provided consultation expertise on the design and manufacture of silicon chips, helping CERN to develop its own design libraries. In addition, IBM solved a complex problem resulting in a high yield and overall cost savings to CMS. Ansaldo Superconduttori of Italy received their Crystal Award for achievements in the development and construction of modules for the CMS superconducting coil (CERN Courier March 2004 p6). The company proposed an innovative construction method that simplified the process by dividing the coil into five modules and also undertook the delicate task of impregnating modules in epoxy resin.
Gold Awards were also presented not only to IBM and Ansaldo but also to EEI of Italy, EMPA of Switzerland, Lenoir Elec of France and TPA Brianza of Italy. EEI was selected for their achievements in the production of the power converter for the CMS magnet. EMPA developed a new ultrasound checking system to control fabrication of the superconductor. They also introduced a process for immediate detection and visualization of welding flaws on line. Lenoir Elec adapted contact breakers especially for the needs of CMS. It is essential that these are very reliable to prevent damage to the magnet. Finally, TPA Brianza received their award for efforts in the development and construction of the winding line for the superconducting coil. To prevent damage to the insulation tape around the conductor, the company developed an innovative tool that works on the same principle as human hands. The device clamps the conductor during the push-up phase and releases it afterwards to prevent friction damage. A seventh Gold Award will be presented to the Iranian company HEPCO in June 2004.
At the same ceremony, the 2003 CMS Thesis Award was presented to Riccardo Ranieri for his PhD thesis "Trigger selection of WH → µνbb (bar) with CMS". Ranieri received his PhD from the University of Florence and was supervised by Carlo Civinini. In total, nine theses were nominated for the award, which was judged on originality, impact within the field of high-energy physics, impact within CMS and clarity of writing.
EPS rewards work in accelerator physics
Vladimir Shiltsev and Igor Meshkov have been announced as the winners of the 2004 accelerator prizes awarded by the European Physical Society's Interdivisional Group on Accelerators (EPS-IGA). The prizes will be given out and the award winners will talk about their work during the forthcoming 9th European Particle Accelerator Conference, EPAC '04, on 8 July 2004 in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Shiltsev, from Fermilab, receives the prize for an individual in the early part of their career who has made a recent significant and original contribution to the field of accelerator research. Specifically, his award was announced as being for: "many important contributions to accelerator physics, which include theory, beam simulations, hardware development, hardware commissioning and beam studies, and in particular for his pioneering work on electron-lens beam-beam compensation."
Meshkov, from JINR, Dubna, is awarded the prize for an individual with outstanding work in the accelerator field. He receives his prize for: "seminal contributions to numerous advances in accelerator science over the past 40 years, in particular for his development and implementation of the techniques that have allowed the original brilliant idea of electron cooling to become a hardware reality and an accelerator tool; and in addition for his devotion to and promotion of international collaboration in accelerator physics."
Prize awarded for radiation-protection research at CERN
Sabine Mayer from CERN has received the 2003 Zakovsky prize from the Austrian Radiation Protection Association for her PhD thesis on "Measurement of dose equivalent in radiation fields at high-energy accelerators". Awarded every two years, the Zakovsky prize acknowledges outstanding scientific contributions by young scientists to the field of radiation protection.
The investigations and work for the thesis were carried out in the Radiation Protection Group of CERN, where Mayer worked on her thesis in the framework of the Austrian Doctoral Student Programme. She shares the 2003 prize with Christian Kirisits from the University of Vienna, whose thesis dealt with radiation protection at therapy units in hospitals.
The award of the prize to Mayer illustrates the importance of the Austrian programme for PhD students at CERN. This programme supports work in all fields of applied physics and technology relevant for CERN. It is financed by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture, and forms part of the CERN Doctoral Student Programme. Approximately 10 new students are accepted per year and so far more than 50 students have obtained PhDs through the programme.