The National Particle Accelerator Open Day took place at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in Oxfordshire on Monday 30th October. It was organised by ISIS Neutron and Muon Source with support from Diamond Light Source, the IoP, IET and STFC and was intended to be a showcase of careers in particle accelerators aimed at undergraduate students. Over 60 students from across the country attended the event.
An employer’s exhibition ran throughout the event and was attended by 17 different organisations, which included the Cockcroft Institute and most of the universities in the UK doing particle accelerator research as well as a range of commercial companies involved in particle accelerator research and development. These organisations were available throughout the day to talk to delegates about opportunities to work with particle accelerators within their organisations.
The day started with talks from Professor David Newbold (STFC Executive Director, National Laboratories Science and Technologies) and Professor Philip Burrows (Director of the John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science) introducing the UK particle accelerator landscape. The delegates were also give opportunities to tour both the ISIS and Diamond particle accelerators on site at RAL.
Later in the day Helen Popland (who came through the STFC graduate scheme), Dr Kay Dewhurst (who did a PhD and now works at CERN) and Lawrence Wang (who works for FMB) gave short talks about how they got to where they are now in their careers. There was also a panel at the end of the day were delegates could ask these people and others any questions they had about getting into particle accelerator careers.
The National Particle Accelerator Open Day is an annual event and next year’s event is planned to take place in the North of England.