IoP half day on Knowledge Exchange and Particle Physics
Phillip's Room, Institute of Physics, Portland Place, London
March 6th 2009, 14:00-17:30
(Organiser : J.Thomas, UCL jthomas@hep.ucl.ac.uk)
The economic climate and government emphasis on economic impact make it
imperative that the very important applications of Particle Physics are
exploited and advertized. There will be a series of talks this afternoon
focusing on a mixture of KE examples from the more advanced to the highly
speculative.
To register for this event please click here .
To see list of participants please click here here.
14.00 Intro and welcome : J. Thomas
14:10 Hadron Therapy slides : K. Peach
More than 50,000 patients with cancer have been treated successfully
with protons and light ions such as carbon over the last 50 years,
initially in physics laboratories but for the last 20 years increasingly
in hospitals, yet this is only a small proportion of those patients who
could potentially benefit from such therapy. This talk reviews
the challenges and the opportunities in translating proton and light-ion
cancer therapy from laboratory to hospital.
14:35 Pixel Detectors for Photon Counting slides : V.Oshea
Medipix is CMOS photon counting readout chip for hybrid pixellated radiation detectors. A brief history of Medipix will look at some of the early goals, myths encountered and quite unexpected developments as the technology has progressed. As the spin out from Particle Physics spins back in as a radiation monitor for the ATLAS experiment, some of the other applications for this technology will be discussed.
15:00 Retinal Implants slides : K. Mathaison
Particle physics has developed cutting-edge detector technologies for high-energy physics experiments. This technology has been successfully used to study how the retina communicates the visual scene to the brain, by developing a high-density readout system based on silicon microstrip technology. An application of this work is the development of a retinal prosthesis to aid patients who have become blind through degenerative retinal diseases.
15:25 Coffee
15:55 Large area low cost thermal neutron detectors for portal applications slides : J.Macmillan (Sheffield)
Low cost thermal neutron scintillation detectors have been developed for low
background fission studies. These were competitive with Helium-3
proportional tubes in terms of efficiency and price. A new generation
of these detectors is being developed for nuclear security portal
applications. Their possible application in large scale box-counter
installations as well as in long range collimated systems will be
described.
16:20 Thorium - the alternative nuclear fuel? slides : R. Cywinski
Thorium is four times more plentiful than uranium and, although fertile rather than fissile, it has a significantly higher energy density when used as a nuclear fuel. We believe that recent developments in accelerator technology are key to unlocking the potential of this low carbon, plutonium-free and proliferation resistant energy resource. In this talk we will discuss how thorium fuel could be exploited both in conventional nuclear reactors and in accelerator driven subcritical systems.
16:45 Harnessing laser driven plasma waves as compact accelerators and radiation sources : D.Jaroszynski
Nearly 30 years have passed since plasma was first proposed as a medium to accelerate particles. Huge progress has been made recently, with controlled acceleration up to 1 GeV now a reality, table-top synchrotron sources and brilliant hard x-ray betatron sources demonstrated and surprisingly good beam quality and high charge measured. We will show how these results point the way to a new paradigm of ultra-compact incoherent and coherent sources that could transform the way science is done.
17:10 Wrap up + discussion slides : Mark Lancaster