AVA Fellow Interviews – Spotlight on Indrajeet Prasad
Now the formal period of the project has come to an end, this is a good moment to look back at the Fellows’ time with AVA. We have asked the Fellows a few questions as part of the AVA Spotlight Interview series; this will give you a more personal insight into their motivation, achievements and outlook. For this interview we have spoken with Indrajeet Prasad who joined the AVA network at FOTON, s.r.o. (Czech Republic) in June 2017. His project focused on the development of high stability, rampable power supplies for accelerator applications, and the trap experiments in particular. For this, he worked closely with many AVA Partners.
What did attract you to the AVA network? Has it fulfilled your expectations?
“There are actually a few strong reasons for me to join the project. One of the most important reason that attracted me to this interesting project was the ability to contribute to a project involving the European Union and CERN. Every time I visited CERN, GSI, or one of the other Partners for my experiments and secondments, it gave me goosebumps to be a part of such an amazing R&D project. By joining the network, I became part of an amazing group of researchers from all around the world, including some of the most senior scientists from the best organizations in the world. Now, I can confidently write to any of the Fellows and senior scientists to ask for guidance regarding career or any R&D aspects. I feel that this is also a very valuable aspects of the AVA network. Another aspect is the excellent training opportunities a large network like this one gives: it is a great chance to gain knowledge from partner institutions. I am happy that I was able to follow the timelines and training provided by the network in different organizations. It indeed fulfilled my expectations and It will be one of the best choices I made in my career.”
Why did you choose to go to FOTON, s.r.o.?
“I choose FOTON because of the R&D project that was offered via AVA: “High Stability, Rampable Power Supplies for keV Ion Beams”. FOTON is a company specialized in designing and manufacturing of advanced scientific instrumentation and has many links with the other institutes and companies in the particle accelerator field. Together, this was a great opportunity that aligned with my own research and development aspirations and an excellent way to learn more about the activities of these scientific partners. In addition, by doing my project at FOTON, it allowed me to also do secondments to CERN and GSI which were highlights of my time with AVA.”
Can you explain in a few words what your project was about and what have you achieved?
“Critical for beam storage and energy ramping in a storage ring and efficient beam transport from a ring to the experiments are power supplies that have a stability of better than 10-4, can be ramped over more than one order of magnitude in output voltage in 1s over a linear ramp and that can be smoothly integrated into the accelerator control system. During my research work at FOTON, I first developed a power supply requirement table of all trap experiments, such as at the ELENA beamlines (CERN) as well as FLAIR rings (GSI). After this, I continued my work with CERN, GSI and Cosylab on defining a suitable interface for their seamless integration into the respective accelerator control system. The next and final phase was the design, build, and test of the power supply prototype at FOTON. This was successfully completed in collaboration with Fellows and other partners in the Network.”
What has AVA provided you professionally?
“AVA provided me with a lot of opportunities to get training in the biggest research laboratories in the world. I had a great time doing my experiment work, secondments, and training at partner institutions. AVA also provided soft skills training, experimental schools, and a lot of travel opportunities. One of the best things that AVA provided was also to connect with the best professionals in the field. Thanks to AVA and the support of my supervisor, I also completed my MBA during the Fellowship.”
Can you say something about your next career move?
“Since I completed my Fellowship, I have started as a Project Estimator ii at Honeywell in Czech Republic. Earlier this year I co-founded a tech start-up called PaMaKid where I am also the Chief Marketing Officer. PaMaKid.com is an AI & Data Science driven Learning Experience Platform for kids to discover Strengths, weaknesses & new interests in a fun way.”
What will be your most cherished memory from AVA?
“That is a difficult on one…! I loved everything about the AVA network. Having said that, visiting CERN for the first time is definitely my cherished moment of the AVA project.”