oPAC Grand Challenges Workshop at CERN

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The oPAC network held a two-day international  workshop on the Grand Challenges in Accelerator Optimization at CERN on 26/27 June 2013. Internationally renowned speakers provided an overview of the current state of the art in research and development at accelerators and light sources and highlighted existing limitations.

Talks on day one of this interactive workshop which was organized for the oPAC fellows and open to the wider community included an overview of the LHC and its upgrade programs by Dr. Gianluigi Arduini (CERN), long term ideas for high energy physics accelerators by Dr. Frank Zimmermann (CERN), insight into the challenges related to the design, commissioning and operation of 3rd generation light sources by the synchrotron Soleil’s director of accelerators, Dr. Amor Nadji, as well as the particular challenges in the design and operation of high intensity proton accelerators, given by the head of the European Spallation Source accelerator group, Dr. Mats Lindroos.

The second day included contributions by FEL prize winner Dr. Daniel Ratner from SLAC who talked about the challenges found at LCLS to date and future research plans, CLPU director Prof. Luis Roso who summarized the achievements in laser acceleration R&D and Dr. Bjarne Nielsen, CEO of Danfysik, who highlighted the importance of collaboration between industry and academia and talked about his company’s trend towards ‘green’ technology. A poster session in the afternoon gave all participants the opportunity to present their own research and allowed for close discussion of research results and future plans. The workshop ended with a special seminar titled ‘unravelling the secrets of the universe’ by Dr. Richard Hawkings in which he summarized the R&D work that led to the discovery of a new particle at the LHC in 2012.

With a total of 120 participants the workshop was very well attended and provided ample opportunity for discussion between participants. The event was the start of a series of international workshops, schools, conferences and public symposia which will be organized by oPAC over the next few years.

Further information:

Workshop home page