This year, we’re welcoming seven students from across the UK to the Cockcroft Institute (CI) at Daresbury Laboratory for a seven-week summer placement. Before getting started on their projects, the students took part in an induction at Daresbury Laboratory. They heard talks on accelerator science from academics and industry partners, and had the chance to look around some of the lab’s facilities, including the radio-frequency-shielded bunker.
This year’s projects range from Wiggler-free free electron lasers in the quantum regime to Energy switching in cargo scanning X-ray devices. The wide variety of research topics reflects the broad range of physics and engineering involved in, or related to, accelerator science. Two of the projects have been funded by CI’s industrial partners, Microwave Amps and Rapiscan Systems.
Stewart Boogert, Director of the Cockcroft Institute, said of the summer student programme: “Connecting students with unique education and training opportunities is central to the mission of the Cockcroft. Accelerator physics is not prominent in physics and engineering university curricula and showing undergraduates the varied and engaging nature of accelerator research is essential to create the talented accelerator scientists of the future.”