Director's Corner
29 November 2007
 Kaoru Yokoya |
New year, new office
Today's issue features a Director's Corner from Kaoru Yokoya, Accelerator Leader for the Global Design Effort.
“If you talk about next year, devils will laugh at you.” This is a Japanese saying that corresponds to the English saying, “Don't count your chickens before they're hatched.” I do not want to be laughed at by the devil, but I would like to write about Building 2 at KEK. This is where my office used to be located. But then it was declared the most fragile site among KEK’s buildings for earthquakes. So the building had to be remodelled immediately.
 Kaoru Yokoya in his temporary office. |
 KEK's Building 2 under renovation. |
Construction started in September, and I have been forced to work in a temporary office ever since. I am surrounded by piles of boxes that contain the items from my old office. I do not see the point of unpacking them before I will return to my new office, which can't get here soon enough.
The floor layout for the new Building 2 is still under consideration, but plans call for a new office for International Linear Collider Asian researchers. KEK proposed to create this new ILC Asian Office at the ACFA meeting during the CCAST workshop in Beijing. For some time now, we have been building a collaborative relationship between Asian countries, and this new office represents a successful outcome. We view the key for strengthening this collaboration as face-to-face communication, and we expect the ILC Asian Office to work as a central base for this activity.
This office will also have a useful role for effective utilisation of KEK's ongoing visitors' programme. We would like to operate the office with senior scientists who not only participate in the R&D programme at KEK, but also arrange for younger scientists from their country to visit. We would like to host these visitors for longer periods of time than the current average stay of a few weeks. This way the visitors will have enough information to pursue their scientific interests and maybe even permanently join the ILC.
Even before the ILC Asian Office officially opens, we will already have three visitors from India. They will start in January and stay for two months. The Raja Ramana Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT) is planning to build their own superconducting facility in India, and they are now in the design phase. Indian scientists are going to participate in the operation of the new electropolishing machine for superconducting radiofrequency cavities at KEK. This machine will start running in January and help our visitors gain experience and learn about the facility design.
The construction of Building 2 will be finished by March 2008. I look forward to writing my next Director's Corner from my brand-new office.
-- Kaoru Yokoya