Cockcroft Institute at Linac18 in Beijing

The 29th International Linear Accelerator Conference (Linac18) was hosted by the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) at the Friendship Hotel in Beijing over 16th – 21st September 2018. During the conference, the Cockcroft Institute and ASTeC have made significant contributions to the scientific programme, organisationally convening sessions and receiving acknowledgement from the current conference chair as the official hosts for the next Linac Conference in 2020, which will be held in Liverpool.

Several Cockcroft staff presented their work at Linac18; Alex Brynes (ASTeC) gave a contributed presentation on the Status of CLARA Front End Commissioning, Rob Apsimon (Lancaster University) also gave a contributed presentation highlighting the Development of a High Gradient Side Coupled Cavity for PROBE and Steve Jamison (Lancaster University and ASTeC) gave an invited oral contribution on Laser and THz Driven Deflection and Acceleration of Electron Beams.

As members of the Linac International Organising Committee, both Graeme Burt (left, foreground) and Peter McIntosh (right, right) were invited to chair the Thursday and Friday plenary sessions respectively. As part of the formal closing session of the conference, the handover process from the current Linac18 conference chair Guoxi Pei (IHEP) to the next Linac20 conference chair Peter McIntosh (STFC) was conducted. The ceremonial Linac chairman’s gavel, which is made from an original Linac drift tube and its support, was officially transferred as it has been performed for all previous Linear accelerator conferences, since the first event was held at Brookhaven, New York back in 1961.