Professor Carsten Welsch Prof Dr

My QUASAR Group is working in partnership with research groups from around the world to design, build and continuously optimize world-class research infrastructures. This includes contributions to the energy frontier machines, in particular the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, its High Luminosity upgrade and the Future Circular Collider. We contribute our unique experience in beam instrumentation and beam dynamics (https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/quasar/research/beam-dynamics/) R&D.

We pursue a very broad and interdisciplinary research program into the design of beyond state-of-the-art low energy antimatter research facilities. The QUASAR Group has been leading developments into diagnostics for low energy antimatter beams for many years, including cyrogenic current comparators for nA beams, novel emittance monitors for low energy storage rings, and optical monitors for single shot profile measurements. I was spokesperson of the international FLAIR collaboration between 2015 - 2018 and have coordinated the 4M€ EU-funded research and training network AVA since 2017.

Finally, we collaborate with other Cockcroft Institute partners on the optimization and experimental exploitation of the CLARA accelerators on Daresbury campus.

A significant part of our R&D focuses on novel acceleration techniques. This includes dielectric laser and carbon nanotube (CNT)-based "micro"-accelerators, as well as laser and particle-driven plasma wakefield accelerators. There schemes show immense promise for innovation of affordable and more compact accelerator. ‌

We have successfully proposed enhanced structures for ultra-compact dielectric laser accelerators and novel CNT-based structures. We are working closely with colleagues at PSI and the Erlangen University on experimental tests of these structures.

An alternative approach to reaching very high accelerating gradients is to generate a plasma wake by a high energy proton beam as demonstrated successfully by the AWAKE experiment at CERN. As scientific project manager of AWAKE-UK, I have a key role in planning the UK's contribution to the experiment and am leading work on cutting edge beam diagnostics R&D and plasma simulations.‌

We are also developing diagnostics for laser and beam-driven plasma-accelerated beams within EuPRAXIA. This is a new distributed facility that was admitted to the ESFRI roadmap of key European research infrastructures. Our research helps overcome the significant challenges that high gradient accelerators pose.

My QUASAR Group is carrying out R&D into healthcare technologies that help improve patient treatment.

For example, we are developing non-invasive on-line beam monitor for proton therapy in collaboration with our clinical partners Clatterbridge Cancer Centre (CCC) and CNAO in Italy. More widely, through the coordination of the 4M€ EU-funded Optimization of Medical Accelerators (OMA) project, I help improve proton and ion beam cancer treatment with a large number of international partners.

We also work closely with Adaptix on the design and optimisation of ultra-compact, high resolution x-ray imaging systems. Through detailed Monte Carlo simulations and experimental studies we contribute to the development of beyond state-of-the-art imaging technologies that have excellent potential to disrupt a centenary technology.

My Group also applies Data Science techniques to various real-world challenges. As Director of the Liverpool Centre for Doctoral Training in Data Intensive Science LIVDAT I lead R&D into machine learning techniques, artificial intelligence and automation.

Based on beam instrumentation prototypes developed over the years within my Group, I have established the company D-Beam Ltd which has become a partner of choice for beam instrumentation projects around the world.