Accelerating success: Imperial teams up with the Cockcroft Institute

New research partnership to focus on next generation of particle accelerators<em> - News</em>

By Danielle Reeves
6 April 2009

Developing the next generation of high energy, efficient, innovative and high quality particle accelerators is the aim of a new research collaboration between Imperial College London and the Cockcroft Institute of Accelerator Science and Technology in Cheshire, UK, announced today.

Particle accelerators propel electrically charged particles close to the speed of light, creating packets of energy and information delivered in custom-designed pulsed patterns of high energy particles, x-rays and light.

These beams are used in fundamental physics experiments that seek to answer big questions about the nature of the universe and in innovative applications in materials, healthcare and energy sciences. They are also used to produce X-rays for imaging the structure of biological molecules and probing ultra-fast processes in matter.

One potential application for accelerators is driving a new kind of radiation-safe nuclear fission reactor, to produce electrical power

Accelerators have revolutionised treatments for cancer through cutting-edge particle beam therapy, and could be used to drive a new kind of reliable, radiation-safe and controllable nuclear fission reactor for the production of electrical power, free from environmental concerns.

The new partnership will bring researchers together from Imperial and the Cockcroft Institute to tackle challenges that impact on the performance and future development of accelerators across all applications.

These challenges include: maximising the energy of particles in the laboratory within affordable space, achieving the coldest possible particle beams, enhancing the efficiency with which energy can be exchanged, recovered and recycled between the beams and power sources, increasing the intensity, accuracy and controllability of the beams, and finding ways of lowering the costs of building and running accelerators. Lowering capital and operating costs are of particular importance in healthcare and energy sectors.

Initially the new partnership will provide joint funding for up to two new research academics and two research students to work alongside existing teams at both organisations. The new researchers will work on accelerators for particle physics and laser-plasma-beam interactions, significantly enhancing the pre-existing collaboration with the Science and Technology Facilities Council's ASTeC centre within the Cockcroft Institute.

Professor Maggie Dallman, Principal of Imperial's Faculty of Natural Sciences, welcomed the new collaboration, saying: "This collaboration combines Imperial's world leading particle, plasma and laser physicists with the Cockcroft Institute's internationally renowned leadership and expertise at the cutting edge of accelerator, particle collider, free electron laser and photon sciences.

"Through close collaboration and sharing of ideas our researchers will be able to make significant progress and new technological developments in this important field."

Professor Sir Peter Knight, Senior Principal at Imperial, added: "Imperial College and the Cockcroft Institute separately have a great track record of innovative research in accelerator science. Working together will enable them to raise their game to address some of the most important global challenges not only in fundamental sciences, but also in energy science and healthcare."

Professor Swapan Chattopadhyay, Director of the Cockcroft Institute, and holding the Sir John Cockcroft Chair of Physics jointly at the Universities of Liverpool, Manchester and Lancaster, said: "I am delighted and honoured that within a mere three years since its inauguration by the Science Minister Lord Sainsbury in 2006, the Cockcroft Institute has been able to attract such prestigious partners like Imperial College London. I thank the leaders of the college and the institute for seeking out this outstanding opportunity of collaboration so graciously.

"I look forward to this unique partnership propelling the field significantly in the years ahead with the combined scientific and technical prowess of the two institutes. This, I believe, cannot fail to be noted globally as a unique engine of discovery and innovation in the years ahead."

The Cockcroft Institute is a partnership between the Universities of Liverpool, Manchester and Lancaster, Science and Technology Facilities Council and the North West Development Agency. It is based at the Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus in Cheshire, UK.

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