News Items December 2010

14 December 2010

PhD Student of the year
First year Accelerator Science PhD student Cherry Canovan has won the Lancaster University Faculty Prize for best PhD Student of the year.


14 December 2010

XB10 Workshop
ASTeC and the Cockcroft Institute hosted XB-10, an International Workshop on X-Band RF structures, Beam Dynamics and Sources from November 30th to December 3rd, 2010 at the Cockcroft Institute.  The purpose of the workshop was to pool common areas of interest and to explore the physics and technology of RF X-band accelerators. … read more below

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ASTeC and the Cockcroft Institute hosted XB-10, an International Workshop on X-Band RF structures, Beam Dynamics and Sources from November 30th to December 3rd, 2010 at the Cockcroft Institute.  The purpose of the workshop was to pool common areas of interest and to explore the physics and technology of RF X-band accelerators.
In order to achieve high gradient, room temperature X-band structures are a natural choice. CLIC for example, is now aiming at an accelerating gradient of 100MV/m at 12 GHz. Other accelerators are already in use commercially at X-band for medical cancer treatment and for cargo scanning.   The workshop incorporated talks both on relatively conventional accelerators, through to linacs exploring radically different structures.
80 scientists, engineers and students from around the world participated in XB-10 to study a range of RF and beam dynamics issues associated with X-band accelerators.  Shrikant Pattalwar chaired the LoC, and Roger Jones chaired the SPC.   A special issue of the NIMs (Nuclear Instruments and Methods) A journal will include selected papers from this workshop, and will be published in 2011.[/toggle_item]
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14 December 2010

A Special Holiday Message …read more below

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With the winter holidays approaching and the calendar year 2010 drawing to a close, I want to take this opportunity to thank every individual in the Cockcroft Institute and all our collaborating partners for their support throughout the year.

This has been an eventful year for our institute. We have completed the very first successful year following the mid-term review in 2009. The renewed Cockcroft core grant promises to take us till 2017 with a long-term vision. This definitely demonstrates a vote of confidence from the UK Research Councils in the institute. Much has been accomplished scientifically by the partnering accelerator scientists and engineers at Daresbury and international collaborators this past year. The most notable of these have been the successful lasing in the infrared wavelengths at the ALICE Free Electron Laser facility in the energy recovery mode, a first for UK and the successful construction, commissioning and operation of EMMA, the world’s first non-scaling FFAG accelerator. The latter continues to be the focus of the international community as we learn more about the behaviour of this new class of accelerators, with promising applications to discovery-class scientific facilities and energy-related research and development. The Cockcroft scientists have continued to contribute in the operation of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and participated in future UK and international accelerator projects such as the Next Light Source, Linear Colliders, various Large Hadron Collider upgrade studies, facilities for nuclear and anti-matter physics research, future neutron sources as well as proton and hadron facilities for health and energy applications. Advanced research in laser-plasma, mathematical physics, computational simulation and modelling, superconducting radio-frequency cavities, vacuum and surface science, particle sources, magnetics, photonic crystals and meta-materials have continued apace.

As I write today, the three partnering universities are in the middle of an active faculty recruitment campaign. Lancaster University has successfully recruited a Chair and a Lecturer in accelerator engineering specializing in photonics. University of Manchester and Liverpool are in the middle of their recruitment drive for three Cockcroft Lecturer slots.

I am aware that some of our colleagues have undergone major career changes such as retirement after many years of professional service and many of our colleagues rising to the challenge of higher responsibilities. Some of our colleagues are moving on to new careers elsewhere while others have recently joined forces with us from other parts of STFC and elsewhere. A significant number of our students have graduated with doctoral degrees this year and some have received prestigious fellowships at places such as CERN.

Despite financially trying times, UK scientists continue to make transformational contributions to science as evidenced by this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics to our University of Manchester colleagues and involvement of UK scientists in the first laboratory trapping of anti-matter at CERN. The scientific and engineering community is a resilient bunch and has always been able to weather fiscally hard times. The challenge for us will be to carve out a vision for our future science and the enabling instruments that we plan to conceive and build. In order for us to do so, we need a sense of stability and not necessarily a large injection of funds, which of course helps. This I have the privilege of offering in a humble and modest way as I announce to you that the Cockcroft Institute’s success to date has played a major role in helping the Daresbury community select and convince a Joint Venture partner to manage the campus. Based on this major success, the CI collaboration and lease agreement are being signed anew this month by the three partnering universities of Liverpool, Manchester and Lancaster, STFC and the NWDA. This ensures our long-term stay on campus in advancing our scientific and technological aspirations — not a trivial gift prior to the holidays as we close the year.

These are YOUR achievements that YOU should be proud of! In addition to the scientists and engineers amongst us, I offer a special set of thanks to our superb and competent administrative staff without whose dedication and support we would not be here today.
To all of you (and yes those of you recovering at home) I and my family extend the very best of wishes for a happy, peaceful and harmonious holiday season with your family and friends.

Swapan Chattopadhyay

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