From the end of March to the beginning of April it is one of the most festive times of the year in Japan, when the cherry blossom trees all over Japan come in to bloom for about ten days and people hold outdoor parties to view and enjoy them. The cherry blossoms are also symbols for farewells and welcomes, because April is the beginning of another school year and a new fiscal year for businesses in Japan. On 23 March, Shuichi Noguchi, one of the leading superconducting radio frequency specialists of KEK, gave his retirement lecture entitled 'Thinking back on my life as a scientist — my life at KEK and the superconducting RF cavity.'

Group photo of the KEK staff to farewell Noguchi (fourth from right) in front of the cavity string for Crymodule-A of the S1-global experiment.

Since Noguchi joined KEK in 1982, he has been engaged in superconducting R&D for almost 30 years. “My life as a scientists was always related to the accelerating cavity,” said Noguchi. He started off with the development of the disk-and-washer type cavity, then got involved in superconducting radiofrequency (RF) cavity development for the TRISTAN accelerator, which was operated from 1987 to 1995 at KEK, the highest energy electron-positron collider at the time.

After TRISTAN, he immersed himself seriously into high-gradient R&D. “I somehow felt guilty just pursuing R&D without being in the project,” he said. But Noguchi and his team produced many successful results including the high gradient record of over 40 megavolts per metre for single cell cavity. Then, he engaged in cavity programme for J-PARC, Japan's proton accelerator complex with the highest beam power in the world. “As you know, the ILC chose superconducting RF cavities for its accelerating technology in 2005, I got involved in the ILC project.”

“I sincerely thank Noguchi-san for his strong leadership and guidance in research and development of superconducting RF cavities at KEK. When I first started my work as one of the ILC Project Managers he kindly gave me his personal guidance. It has been my reference in any critical decisions required. I wish I could have more opportunities to learn about his outstanding knowledge and experiences,” said Akira Yamamoto, one of the Project Managers of the Global Design Effort.

The result of his long effort at KEK will be used for the test at KEK's superconducting test facility, STF, during the test to be conducted in the coming years. “I feel deeply pleased to see the beam running through the cavity, since I had not been in a real project for long time,” he smiled.

“I have enjoyed working for KEK and appreciate the support provided me during my employment. I would like to point out three important things as my last words for this lecture. Those are 'team work', 'communication' and 'risk management',” said Noguchi. “I think that it became difficult to have enough communication as the organisation became bigger. You should be conscious to have good communication,” said Noguchi concluding his lecture.

“I greatly thank Noguchi-san's leading job on the cavities for ILC. I thought his plan was too conservative when we decided the direction of R&D for ILC at KEK in 2004, but later studies revealed that he made a right judgment. The present level of cavity technology at KEK could not be reached without his effort,” said Kaoru Yokoya, Global Design Effort regional director for Asia. “Obviously we need him at least for several more years. We have to disturb his comfortable life after retirement,” he added with smile.

-- Rika Takahashi