Special APS session focuses on global physics projects
CERN's LHC has ushered in an era of physics projects that are truly global in scale. These projects are massive in scope, take decades to plan and execute, and cost billions of dollars. A prime example is ITER, the joint international research and development project that aims to demonstrate the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion power. During its annual meeting in Denver on 2 May the American Physical Society (APS) held a special symposium and a panel discussion on "Global Physics Projects", co-organized by the APS Forums on Physics & Society and International Physics.
The panel included Christopher Llewellyn Smith, who is currently chairman of the ITER Council and president of the council for the Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME) facility. He was director-general of CERN at the time the LHC was approved in 1994 and when the US and CERN signed an agreement on the LHC in December 1997. Jack Gibbons, who was then director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and presided over the signing ceremony, was also on the panel. Other panelists were Dennis Kovar, the associate director of science for high-energy physics in the US Department of Energy; Pier Oddone, director of Fermilab; and Lawrence Krauss, director of the Origins Initiative at Arizona State University. The session was chaired and organized by Fermilab's Pushpa Bhat, who collaborates on the D0 experiment at the Tevatron and the CMS experiment at the LHC.
The symposium began with a keynote address by Llewellyn Smith on "International Scientific Collaboration", followed by brief remarks by other panelists. The ensuing panel discussion considered the lessons learned so far from large projects, and questions and issues to be addressed for future projects. Are the mechanisms and procedures in place adequate? What and who should be the drivers for decision making? How should we fund, manage and execute global projects?
Global projects are essential for addressing important scientific and technical challenges in the 21st century. They could also help to build political bridges between nations and across diverse societies, as Llewellyn Smith pointed out. Krauss reinforced this, saying that such projects "have been remarkable in allowing countries that will not otherwise interact to interact, and not just at a peripheral level, but at a fundamental level. The fact that the LHC can be built by thousands of physicists in hundreds of countries speaking dozens of languages is remarkable."
The panel, from the right: Dennis Kovar, Pier Oddone, Chris Llewellyn Smith and Jack Gibbons, with chairs Lawrence Krauss and Pushpa Bhat (far left).
Image credit: C Bhat and Don Prosnitz.
Visits
President of the government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Nikola Gruevski (left) visited CERN on 27 April. He visited the CMS experiment, together with CMS spokesperson Jim Virdee and was given a presentation about the LHC grid project before touring the Computing Centre. He also visited the LHC tunnel.
On 3 May the Japanese minister of state for science and technology policy, food safety, minister of consumer affairs and minister of space policy, Seiko Noda (right), visited CERN. Together with Taka Kondo of KEK and the ATLAS Collaboration, she toured the ATLAS control room and the LHC tunnel, where she saw the inner triplet magnets to which KEK contributed. She also visited the CERN Control Centre before meeting with Japanese researchers and students based at CERN.
Carlos Martinez Alonso (right), the Spanish secretary of state for research, ministry of science and innovation, toured the CMS experimental cavern on 13 May with Guido Tonelli, deputy CMS spokesperson. He also toured the Computing Centre and the ATLAS experiment and met with members of CERN's Spanish community.