2009 Director's Corner archive

Current Director's Corner archive


 

17 December 2009 - Strawman Baseline 2009 Report - ILC Cost Estimating Tool We are currently preparing the SB2009 proposal with the goals of reducing the overall cost, optimising the facilities, and improving the performance of the accelerator for the next ILC baseline. -- By Peter Garbincius
10 December 2009 - The ILC Project Advisory Committee considers proposed ILC baseline revisions In recent months the project managers have presented a "strawman" baseline (SB2009) to the broader ILC community at a workshop in Albuquerque and to the International Linear Collider Steering Committee's Project Advisory Committee (ILCSC PAC) at a review in Pohang, Korea last November. We have now received the report of the PAC review and I discuss some highlights of that review here. -- By Barry Barish
3 December 2009 - Open Sesame The Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science & Applications in the Middle East (i.e. SESAME) is a scientific collaboration of countries in the region, who have joined together to develop a major international research center. -- By Barry Barish
25 November 2009 - What drives the development of technology (...) Taking all ILC cavity tests into account, a globally-based pattern of achievement and success emerges, giving confidence that we will meet or even exceed the forward looking-goal we set for ourselves at Snowmass in 2005. -- By Marc Ross
19 November 2009 - The Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge (...) At the American Linear Collider Physics Group workshop at Albuquerque (ALCPG09), we had a very informative presentation by Stuart Henderson of Oak Ridge on "The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) Linac: Performance and Operational Experience." -- By Barry Barish
12 November 2009 - Rethinking LHC-ILC connections The American Linear Collider Physics Group (ALCPG) workshop held in Albuquerque, New Mexico from 29 September to 3 October was one of our large ILC meetings that we hold twice a year... [P]erhaps the most important contribution was a talk given by Michael Peskin, SLAC, with the intriguing title, "Rethinking the LHC - ILC Connection." -- By Barry Barish
5 November 2009 - Report on the CLIC workshop The September ALCPG and ILC meeting in Albuquerque, US, featured a plenary talk on the Compact Linear Collider Study CLIC by Jean-Pierre Delahaye, who gave a very nice description of the CLIC status and plans. (...) Today, I share a few personal observations from the workshop. -- By Barry Barish
29 October 2009 - Accelerators everywhere - the ILC in context ...I am... [at] the "Accelerators for America's Future" meeting held in Washington, D.C. and sponsored by the US Department of Energy. The meeting is intended to raise the profile and set the strategy for the future of accelerator physics in the US. The morning's talks have been in turn illuminating, amusing, and infuriating. -- By Brian Foster
22 October 2009 - ILCSC grapples with moving the Linear Collider forward The International Linear Collider Steering Committee (ILCSC) held their bi-annual meeting dealing with issues varying from the validation of the letters of intent (LOI) for the detectors to ILC-CLIC collaboration to developing efforts on governance and siting. -- By Barry Barish
15 October 2009 - CERN prepares for LHC commissioning (...) We were very fortunate to hear a timely report from Philippe Lebrun on the status of the LHC and plans for commissioning at the American Linear Collider Physics Group workshop in Albuquerque at the end of September. -- By Barry Barish
8 October 2009 - Toshiaki Tauchi joins the GDE Executive Committee The expansion of the Global Design Effort Executive Committee (EC) is complete. Today I announce that Toshiaki Tauchi has accepted my invitation and has joined the EC. -- By Barry Barish
1 October 2009 - FALC meets in Quebec City The Funding Agencies for Large Colliders (FALC) held its fifteenth meeting at Quebec City on 13 July 2009. -- By Barry Barish
24 September 2009 - Operating and maintaining the ILC in the year 202X (...) the schedule for frequency and duration of time to repair, maintain and upgrade equipment can affect system design and R&D on component development and we need to think about these things now in order to be ready when the ILC comes online. -- By Ewan Paterson
17 September 2009 - Linear Collider Accelerator School underway in China I write this week's column as a lecturer at the fourth International Linear Collider accelerator science school that is underway at the Hotel Jixian in Huairou, located in a beautiful isolated park-like area about one hour from Beijing, China. -- By Barry Barish
10 September 2009 - A new ILC baseline and global consensus (...) We are undergoing a process we refer to as Accelerator Design and Integration, from which we expect to make a number of important changes to the baseline for the ILC. -- By Barry Barish
3 September 2009 - Keeping up with ILC technical progress Today, I want to advertise another useful resource that provides detailed ILC technical developments: the monthly Project Managers' Report -- By Barry Barish
27 August 2009 - The beauty of international collaboration I have personally been convinced during my whole professional life of the great advantages and the increasing necessity of International Collaboration. -- By Jean-Pierre Delahaye
20 August 2009 - Stimulus funds for SCRF at Fermilab (...) The announcement by the U.S. Department of Energy that it will provide $52.7M of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds to develop the Fermilab (SCRF) programme is a very welcome development. -- By Barry Barish, Bob Kephart
13 August 2009 - ALCPG09 in Albuquerque Our next (...) general meeting, organised by the American Linear Collider Physics Group (ALCPG), will be held at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico from 29 September through 2 October 2009. -- By Barry Barish
6 August 2009 - Particle Physics at Academia Sinica in Taiwan Last month, I had the opportunity to spend time at the Academia Sinica in Taiwan where I chaired a review of their Institute of Physics, which has an impressive high-energy physics programme. -- By Barry Barish
30 July 2009 - Global effort for high-gradient ILC SCRF cavities I would like to thank Barry Barish (...) for the opportunity to write his column and expand on the efforts for an area of the Main Linac and Superconducting Radiofrequency (ML-SCRF) technology and the tasks ahead of us. -- By Akira Yamamoto
23 July 2009 - Accelerator Design and Integration ... One of the most complex and difficult changes under consideration is changing from the RDR's double-tunnel to a single-tunnel configuration. A key problem to solve for a single-tunnel configuration is how to deliver the high-level radiofrequency power to the cryomodules. --By Barry Barish
16 July 2009 - Students admitted to LC accelerator school Preparations continue toward our "Fourth International Accelerator School for Linear Colliders" -- By Barry Barish
9 July 2009 - Improvements in high-gradient ILC SCRF cavities ... we plan to set an average operating gradient of 31.5 MV per metre for the 14560 cavities mounted in the 1680 cryomodules of a 500-GeV ILC. -- By Barry Barish
2 July 2009 - A picture is worth a thousand words Today, in less than 1000 words, I announce the addition of a new member of the Global Design Effort Executive Committee (EC), Jean-Pierre Delahaye of CERN. -- By Barry Barish
25 June 2009 - The other kind of particle acceleration The ILC, when built, will represent the latest in technology innovation and will be a global effort involving world-class talent. The Accelerator Design and Integration meeting held at DESY a few weeks ago is an example of the design process in action. -- By Mike Harrison
18 June 2009 - A step at a time Last week we held the first ever joint meeting of the GDE Executive Committee and the CLIC Extended Steering Committee. This meeting at CERN represented another step in bringing the CLIC and ILC efforts closer together. -- By Barry Barish
11 June 2009 - An official change of name ... A new, more descriptive name for the process we are undertaking, Accelerator Design and Integration, became official at the first working meeting towards defining a new ILC baseline held at DESY from 28 to 29 May. -- By Barry Barish
4 June 2009 - The value of being reviewed The AAP is an "inside" panel that is augmented by some outside experts and has the mandate of continually monitoring, reviewing and giving me advice on the technical aspects of our work. -- By Barry Barish
28 May 2009 - Whats in a word During the day-to-day activities of Global Design Effort Project Management, I find myself using certain nouns more frequently than others. Recently, the word review has featured prominently in our vocabulary. -- Nick Walker
21 May 2009 - Learning accelerator science Today I want to encourage young researchers interested in becoming accelerator scientists to consider applying to participate in our "Fourth International Accelerator School for Linear Colliders." -- By Barry Barish
14 May 2009 - Progress on ILC machine-detector interfaces through the detector LOI process Compared to most accelerators, the ILC will have a much more intimate and complex set of interfaces between the machine and the detectors (MDI). -- By Barry Barish
7 May 2009 - Garbincius joins GDE Executive Committee (...) The heart of the GDE organisation and central 'engine' is an Executive Committee (EC) that works very closely with me on carrying out all important policy, organisational and operational matters. Today, I am pleased to announce that Peter Garbincius of Fermilab has joined the EC. -- By Barry Barish
30 April 2009 - New cavity production facility for future industrialisation (...) One of the most important plans for the ILC project is to build a new superconducting radiofrequency (rf) cavity production facility on KEK premises, aiming to gain experiences for industrialisation and future mass-production. -- By Kaoru Yokoya
23 April 2009 - FLASH - ILC-like beam tests at DESY (...) Before we can develop our own test systems that use ILC modules, we are making a series of important tests using the FLASH free-electron laser linac at DESY. -- By Barry Barish
16 April 2009 - Gran Sasso National Laboratory survives the Italian earthquake Last week a major earthquake struck Italy about 10 kilometres from the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (Gran Sasso National Laboratory). The inhabitants of the city of L'Aquila nearby the laboratory suffered numerous injuries and loss of lives, as well as extensive damage to buildings, homes and historic structures. (...) The Gran Sasso Laboratory, the most ambitious deep underground research facility in the world, suffered no significant damage, and for that we can be thankful. -- By Barry Barish
9 April 2009 - Technological Benefits from ILC R&D We are pursuing a very ambitious R&D programme in order to develop the technologies that will be required to build the International Linear Collider. Recognising that important technological benefits are resulting from our ILC R&D programme, the Funding Agencies for Large Colliders, a group composed of representatives of national science funding agencies worldwide, commissioned a study. -- By Barry Barish
2 April 2009 - Neutrinos in Venice Last month I had the pleasure of participating in the "XIII International Workshop on Neutrino Telescopes" at the "Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti" in Venice Italy. (...) This year's meeting was especially interesting to me in how it demonstrated the relationships between accelerator and non-accelerator physics and how much closer astrophysics is becoming to particle physics. -- By Barry Barish
26 March 2009 - Renewing links with superconducting cavity manufacturers This guest Director's Corner is about our effort to open new relationships and partnerships with the (cavity manufacturing) companies, worldwide. -- By Marc Ross
19 March 2009 -Science in the Obama era "We will restore science to its rightful place," said President Barack Obama in his inauguration address. That statement has raised the hopes of the scientific community, and actions that have followed have further encouraged us to believe that we are entering a new era in the US that will have increased priority for the support of science. (...) It is worthwhile anticipating how all the changes will impact US science, high-energy physics, in particular, and finally on our efforts towards the ILC. -- By Barry Barish
12 March 2009 -The ILC damping rings and electron cloud mitigation Today's ILC Newsline is a thematic issue focusing on aspects of electron cloud mitigation for the ILC and for other future accelerators. One of the highest-priority goals of the ILC R&D programme during the Technical Design Phase is to demonstrate that the proposed mitigation techniques for the electron clouds in the damping rings will reduce the levels so that the clouds will not impact the emittance performance of the positron damping ring. --By Barry Barish
5 March 2009 - ILC RD plan updated We characterise the present period of the Global Design Effort activities as a four-year programme to prepare ourselves to be ready to propose a well conceived ILC construction project to collaborating governments by around 2012. -- By Barry Barish
26 February 2009 - Trains, planes and automobiles - the life of a regional director Although 2009 is not yet two months old, I seem to have already fitted in enough trips to fill a year - but such is the life of an ILC Director. -- By Brian Foster
19 February 2009 - TILC09 will have some special features TILC09 will be held in Tsukuba, Japan, from 17 to 21 April 2009: We will once again share a venue for the Global Design Effort meeting with an ILC physics and detector workshop. These joint meetings help bring us all together as a single community. --By Barry Barish
12 February 2009 - Involving Spain in the ILC R&D programme We had a nearly two-day meeting with the Spanish particle physics groups to explore collaborations for the ILC last month. (...) These meetings gave us a much better understanding of the capabilities and ambitions of the Spanish groups and gave them a better picture of the opportunities in ILC R&D and design work. We expect to continue these productive discussions, leading up to increased Spanish involvement in the ILC. --By Barry Barish
5 February 2009 - FALC meets in Madrid The Funding Agencies for Large Colliders (FALC) held its semi-annual meeting in Madrid, Spain on 19 January. -- By Barry Barish
29 January 2009 - ILC power I have many times been in the situation where I took an interested non-expert on a tour of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and explained how it relates to a future project, the International Linear Collider. -- By Ewan Paterson
22 January 2009 - Training the next generation of accelerator scientists The Third International Accelerator School for Linear Colliders took place from 19 to 20 October 2008 at the Oakbrook Hills Marriott Hotel near Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. and was a continuation of the previous two international LC accelerator schools held in 2006 in Japan and 2007 in Italy. -- By Barry Barish
15 January 2009 - Plug compatibility An interesting and challenging concept that has emerged in developing the ILC's technical design is that of plug compatibility for the superconducting radio frequency accelerating systems. -- By Barry Barish
8 January 2009 - A New Year (...) I am happy to report that we are starting this year in a much more stable state and with a solid and realistic R&D plan that we believe we can accomplish. -- By Barry Barish

 

You are here