CERN Accelerator School goes to Darmstadt
The CERN Accelerator School (CAS), GSI and the Technische Universität Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt) jointly organized an intermediate-level course on "General Accelerator Physics" at the TU Darmstadt on 27 September – 9 October 2009.
The course followed established practice, with lectures on core topics in the mornings and specialized courses in the afternoons. The latter provided "hands-on" education and experience in three areas: RF measurement techniques; beam instrumentation and diagnostics; and optics design and correction. These proved to be highly successful, with participants choosing one course and following the topic throughout the school. Guided studies, tutorials, seminars and a poster session completed the programme. Participants appreciated a visit to GSI and the project for the future Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), as well as an optional visit to the superconducting linac, DALINAC, in Darmstadt. The school also included an excursion by boat on the river Rhine from Mainz to Bacharach.
The school was very successful, attracting 67 participants representing 21 nationalities. Feedback from the participants was extremely positive, and praised the expertise and enthusiasm of the lecturers as well as the high standard and excellent quality of their lectures.
• The next CAS General Accelerator Physics course will be an introductory course and will take place in Varna, Bulgaria on 19 September – 1 October 2010. Information will soon be available on the CAS website, at www.cern.ch/schools/CAS.
The Nishina Memorial Prize is awarded for strings and gamma rays
Hiroshi Ooguri of the California Institute of Technology and the Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU), and Hirokazu Tamura of Tohoku University have won the Nishina Memorial Prize for 2009. The prize is awarded to young physicists for their achievements in the field of atomic and sub-atomic physics by the Nishina Memorial Foundation, established in 1955 to commemorate Yoshi Nishina. Ooguri receives his share for the study of topological string theory, while Tamura is rewarded for his work on hypernuclear gamma-ray spectroscopy.
Nishina originated the study of nuclear physics in Japan and trained many young Japanese scientists in the field.
Visits
William Brinkman, director of the Office of Science in the US Department of Energy, centre left, visited CERN on 13 November. He toured the test hall for the LHC's superconducting magnets with (from left to right): Felicitas Pauss, CERN co-ordinator for external relations; John Ellis, CERN adviser for non-member states; Jim Strait from Fermilab and Lucio Rossi, deputy head of CERN's Technology Department. He also visited the CMS control room and the computing centre.
The Bulgarian minister of economy, energy and tourism, Traicho Traikkov, right, visited CERN on 1 December. He was welcomed by Rolf Heuer, CERN's director-general and toured the test hall for the LHC's supercomputing magnets and the ATLAS visitors' centre.