Newsline

Author archive: Rika Takahashi

Canada-Japan collaboration in accelerator science

| 6 August 2009 On 7 July, while the Emperor and Empress of Japan were visiting Canada, Nigel Lockyer, the director of TRIUMF, gave a lecture at the Canada – Japan Particle Accelerator Science Symposium at the Embassy of Canada in Tokyo, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and Canada. Today, Canada and Japan are partners in numerous international groups and organisations such as the G8, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the Organisation for Co-operation and Development (OECD). This symposium showcased one of many Canada-Japan collaborations: the active partnership in accelerator science. Category: Feature | Tagged: , , ,

Observe, explore and re-create the universe

| 23 July 2009 "Uchu (宇宙)" is the Japanese word that can be translated as either "universe" or "space." The Advanced Accelerator Association Promoting Science and Technology (AAA) in Japan has been on tour with their symposium series on "uchu" – observing by telescope, exploring by spacecraft and re-creating by accelerator – and the second event was just held in Hiroshima on 4 July. Category: Around the World | Tagged: , ,

New website open! – One-stop shopping on Asian accelerator information

| 28 May 2009 A new website called Asian Accelerator Plaza (AAP) was officially launched on 27 May, and is aimed to be a comprehensive reference tool for anybody who is interested in Asian accelerator-related activities. This website was developed by collaboration among several Asian accelerator science research institutes, and is being operated in four languages: traditional and simplified Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean. “I first thought it will be very challenging to translate the contents into different languages, but with the help from our Asian colleagues, it went quite smoothly,” said Tsunehiko Omori, KEK physicist and editor-in-chief of this website. Category: Around the World | Tagged: ,

ILC technology gets awarded

| 16 April 2009 On 23 March, the 2008 Nishikawa Award Ceremony was held in Tokyo, and awards were given to three ILC scientists: Yoshihisa Iwashita (Kyoto University), Hitoshi Hayano (KEK) and Yujiro Tajima (Toshiba Co., Ltd). Category: Feature | Tagged: , , ,

Collaboration towards the realisation of the ILC

| 26 March 2009 On 26 February, in the middle of an important Diet discussion (equivalent to members of congress in Japan) on the supplemental bill, the Advanced Accelerator Association Promoting Science and Technology (AAA) held a symposium entitled “Departing from Japan to Universe – Toward the realisation of International Linear Collider (ILC)” in Akasaka, central region of Tokyo with over 150 participants from industry, academia and the political community. AAA, established in June 2008 with a total of about 100 companies, universities and laboratories, has discussed issues on R&D, intellectual property rights and other related areas concerning the ILC as a model project. The primary aim of this symposium was to review AAA’s activities for fiscal year 2008 and to gain a better understanding of the advanced accelerator – the significance of promoting the R&D and the expected impact to the society. Category: Around the World | Tagged: , ,

New ILC Communicator for Asia

| 19 February 2009 “I am very much honoured to be given this opportunity to work with the ILC communicators and to be involved in promoting a science project of this scale,” said Misato Hayashida. A fourth ILC communicator has joined the Global Design Effort. Misato Hayashida, based at KEK, will be sharing the Asian communication duties with Rika Takahashi and will closely collaborate with her European colleagues, Perrine Royole-Degieux (CNRS/IN2P3) and Barbara Warmbein (DESY). Category: Feature | Tagged: ,

Korea to build new science and business city

| 29 January 2009 Since the leadership of its President Lee Myung-bak, Korea has placed high value on science and technology. On 13 January, the government officially signed a contract for a big project to build an international science and business belt that includes the establishment of a new institute, the Asian Basic Science Institute (ABSI), and the construction of a Rare Isotope Accelerator. Category: Around the World | Tagged: ,

From four to six quarks in a month and a half

| 15 January 2009 Toshihide Maskawa is one of the most popular public figures in Japan at the moment. He has charmed many Japanese people with his humour and pure passion for the science that he showed at the press conference after he won the 2008 Nobel prize in physics, together with Yoichiro Nambu, professor emeritus at Chicago University, and Makoto Kobayashi, honorary professor emeritus at KEK. Category: Feature | Tagged: ,

Beauty lies within

| 11 December 2008 The inner surfaces of the niobium cavities for the International Linear Collider have to be polished to literally sparkle, since the smallest defects, such as bumps, pits, welding flaws or human-induced scratches on them are considered to be dominantly responsible for the deterioration of the cavity performance and can even lead to quenches and field emission. Many techniques and technologies have been studied and developed already to address this challenge. At the end of November, the first prototype of a new gadget developed with different approach was delivered to KEK. Category: Feature | Tagged: ,

Understanding something new — interview with Makoto Kobayashi

| 26 November 2008 It has been hectic days for Makoto Kobayashi, Professor emeritus at KEK, since 7 October, the announcement of 2008 Nobel Prize in physics. Now that one month has passed, Kobayashi finally gets to settle down a little (or he has gotten used to keeping up with a demanding schedule), he shared his time to talk about the future of accelerator science with ILC NewsLine. Category: Feature | Tagged: ,