Director’s Corner 20 December 2007 Barry Barish Omnibus is ominous Our plan this week was to make this issue of ILC NewsLine a thematic one, highlighting progress on Superconducting Radiofrequency R&D, the central technology for the International Linear Collider. It would have made a very nice final edition for this calendar year, but unfortunately new […]
Omnibus is ominous
Director’s Update: STFC Report
Earlier this week on 11 December, the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) announced funding cuts in a number of their physics and astronomy programmes. To my disappointment, the International Linear Collider is one of these programmes. The STFC report states: “We will cease investment in the International Linear Collider. We do not see […]
A more integrated approach toward an energy frontier lepton collider
Director’s Corner 13 December 2007 Barry Barish A more integrated approach toward an energy frontier lepton collider All of particle physics is poised for the impending first explorations of the trillion-electronvolt (TeV) energy scale at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. Within the next couple of years, the LHC will lead the way in opening up this […]
China prepares for a new generation of tau-charm physics
Director’s Corner 6 December 2007 Barry Barish China prepares for a new generation of tau-charm physics The BEPC accelerator and BES detector facility are the centerpieces of the Institute of High Energy Physics in Beijing. These ambitious state-of-the-art facilities act as the follow-on to the pioneering studies at SPEAR of tau and charm physics. During […]
The importance of carefully planned infrastructure
Director’s Corner 21 November 2007 Barry Barish The importance of carefully planned infrastructure The elaborate infrastructure around the ATLAS detector at CERN. Last week, I gave a colloquium about the ILC at CERN. This is a very interesting time to be at CERN. There is a buzz in the air and an impressive amount of […]
Chinese participation in ILC
Director’s Corner 15 November 2007 Barry Barish Chinese participation in ILC The symbol of the ILC workshop was the new Beijing National Grand Theatre: a cultural island in the middle of a lake near Tian An Men Square and the Forbidden City (Image courtesy of CCAST). Beijing is a place to mark important ILC milestones. […]
Cosmic Dark Matter and the ILC
Director’s Corner 8 November 2007 Barry Barish Cosmic Dark Matter and the ILC A couple of weeks ago, Michael Peskin (SLAC) opened the ALCPG07 meeting at Fermilab with a visionary talk titled, “The Physics Landscape: Now and Tomorrow.” I sat in the audience and wondered what he would do with such a sweeping subject in […]
Critical decisions
Director’s Corner 1 November 2007 Barry Barish Critical decisions Last week was an eventful week. The ALCPG07 and GDE meetings at Fermilab, attended by over 300 scientists and engineers, marked the completion of the ILC Reference Design Report and the beginning of the engineering design activities. The joint plenary session on the first day of […]
Frosting on the cake
Director’s Corner 18 October 2007 Barry Barish Frosting on the cake Today we mark the conclusion of the Reference Design Report phase of the International Linear Collider Global Design Effort with the release of our document, The International Linear Collider: Gateway to the Quantum Universe. This new document is a companion to our four-volume technical […]