Worrying Skills Shortage in Accelerator R&D
There are more than thirty thousand particle accelerators in the world, ranging from the linear accelerators used for cancer therapy in modern hospitals to the giant 'atom-smashers' at international particle physics laboratories used to unlock the secrets of creation.
The vast majority of these machines are used for medical and industry applications and their advancement also pushes the development of other scientific fields such as informatics, cryogenics, vacuum, control systems and new materials.
Despite very significant investment in accelerator and clinical facilities across Europe, there are not many programs available at all that train the urgently required accelerator experts to design, build, operate and optimize these research infrastructures.
The QUASAR Group has pioneered researcher training in this important area through its contributions to the Cockcroft Institute, as well as its role as coordinator of DITANET, oPAC and LA³NET. Despite many successes, much more still needs to be done as highlighted in an article that has just been published in medicalXpress.