UK opens two major centres for particle-accelerator research
Two major research centres for accelerator science and technology opened in the UK on 19 September. The Cockcroft Institute and the John Adams Institute will be national focal points for UK scientists and companies to develop leading accelerator technologies for major projects such as the International Linear Collider and a neutrino factory.
The Cockcroft Institute and the John Adams Institute were set up by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council in partnership with the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils. The aim is to provide the facilities and infrastructure for research and training in accelerator science and engineering. The two institutes are already heavily involved in the research and development needed for future high-energy, high-intensity linear colliders as well as for the construction of new high-intensity neutrino sources.
The Cockcroft Institute is located on the new Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus and is a joint venture between the two research councils, the universities of Liverpool, Lancaster and Manchester, and the Northwest Regional Development Agency. The John Adams Institute is located at both the University of Oxford and Royal Holloway University London and is a partnership between those two universities and the two research councils.
The Cockcroft Institute was officially opened by Lord Sainsbury, minister for science and innovation, in the presence of the children of Sir John Cockcroft, the Nobel prize-winner and one of the founders of modern accelerator research. After the opening ceremony, Sainsbury spent time with the staff in the laboratories discussing demonstrations of current R&D on RF systems, vacuum science and engineering, design simulation, and theoretical accelerator physics.
The John Adams Institute was opened by Christopher Adams, son of the accelerator designer and engineer Sir John Adams who was twice director-general of CERN and a leading figure in the construction of CERN's major accelerators. Sir John's daughter, Josi Shinzel, also spoke at the ceremony, as well as former CERN director-general Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith and Lyn Evans, head of the Large Hadron Collider project at CERN.