Fabiola Gianotti is the Director-General of CERN. The 2020 update of the European strategy for particle physics forms the basis of CERN’s objectives for the next five years, explains Fabiola Gianotti
4 February, 2021 Wandering the immeasurable, a 15 tonne sculpture tracing 4000 years of scientific knowledge, welcomes visitors to CERN (Image: CERN)
The European strategy for particle physics (ESPP), updated by the CERN Council in June 2020, lays the foundations for a bright future for accelerator-based particle physics. Its 20 recommendations – covering the components of a compelling scientific programme for the short, medium and long terms, as well as the societal and environmental impact of the field, public engagement and support for early-career scientists – set out an ambitious but prudent approach to realise the post-LHC future in Europe within the worldwide context.
MelBOX arrives at the University of Melbourne (Image: Matteo Volpi/University of Melbourne)
On 16 September 2020, a container filled with pallets, boxes and electronic racks left CERN’s Meyrin site to embark on a two-month sea journey to the other side of the world. On 17 November, at precisely 3.12 p.m. local time, its ship docked at Port Melbourne, from where, following customs clearance earlier this year, the container and its contents were transported to a new home: the University of Melbourne.
The container held the components of the southern hemisphere’s first X-band radio-frequency test facility; “X-band” refers to the ultra-high-frequency at which the device operates. The device, half of the CERN facility known as XBOX-3, will soon be a part of the “X-Lab” at the University of Melbourne. Its journey resulted from an agreement signed between CERN and the Australian Collaboration for Accelerator Science in 2010.
TMD Provides Innovative Accelerator Structures For CERN Compact Linear Collider Collaboration (CLIC)
Source: TMD Technologies
TMD Technologies Limited, (TMD) world-class, West London based manufacturer of hi-tech microwave and RF products, has won a contract to produce the latest CERN prototype CLIC accelerating structure.
TMD has long been associated with the supply of RF components to CERN, and this latest, prestigious order is the result this successful relationship.
Engineering to the ‘width of a human hair’…
The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) Collaboration involves the development of a next generation electron-positron collider that could serve as a ‘factory’ for massproducing Higgs Bosons. The key elements of the CLIC design are the accelerating structures, which need to produce an electric-field gradient of up to 100 million volts per meter to accelerate the electrons and positrons (antielectrons) to high energies within the shortest distance possible - in thi