A partnership in Accelerating Technology

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:45:00 GMT

On Wednesday 26 October, the Management of Siemens Corporate Research visited the newly-constituted International Institute for Accelerator Applications (IIAA) in the School of Applied Sciences at the University of Huddersfield.

The visit included tours of the IIAA laboratories, where the £500k Siemens Ion Source is now installed and fully operational, and where a major Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) national accelerator facility, the Medium Energy Ion Scattering Facility, MEIS, for studying the surfaces of technologically-important materials, will soon be relocated.

The University of Huddersfield has been named a Siemens Official Technology Partner, and the visit will consolidate the existing collaborations between Siemens and the University where Oliver Heid, Head of Siemens Healthcare Technology and Concepts (HTC), now holds a visiting professorship.

Particle accelerators are playing an increasingly important role in science and technology, with applications as diverse as radioisotope l production, ion implantation and materials research.

The University of Huddersfield’s IIAA is the first UK Institute dedicated to accelerator applications, and the industrial-academic collaboration between Siemens and the University of Huddersfield will facilitate the development of innovative, smaller and hence less expensive and less complicated accelerator systems to address society’s needs.

The goal to position the UK at the cutting edge of accelerator development was recently confirmed by a significant investment from the UK government in the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) by Prime Minister David Cameron.

Partnership

The technology partnership between Siemens AG and the University of Huddersfield will similarly contribute to this goal. It will bring leading academics of international standing with many years of experience in the exploitation of high energy particle beams produced by the world’s most powerful accelerators together with Siemens’ leading experts in the development of advanced accelerator concepts, components and technology.

Professor Bob Cywinski, Dean of Applied Sciences and founder member of IIAA said: “The collaboration between Siemens AG and the University of Huddersfield has global implications for the development of the next generation of particle accelerators for society. The partnership also cements the University of Huddersfield’s position as a major and internationally-recognised centre for advanced accelerator development.”