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2001 SCHOOL ON INSTRUMENTATION IN ELEMENTARY PARTICLE PHYSICS
The National Accelerator Centre in South Africa recently played host to the
first African held international school on instrumentation in elementary
particle physics.
This popular school, hosted at the National Accelerator Centre (NAC) (Faure, Cape) from the 26th March to the 6th April 2001, was the ninth in the series organized by the International Committee for Future Accelerators (ICFA) Panel on Instrumentation, Innovation and Development. The main aim was to stimulate interest in instrumentation used in high energy physics, related fields and the application thereof.
Some of the previous schools were held in developing countries such as India (1993), Slovenia (1995), Mexico (1997) and Turkey (1999). Every one of them has been very successful in attracting a relatively large group of very enthusiastic student participants, including many from that particular region. Moving the venue of the school to many different countries of the world allows greater participation by students from the various regions. This is the first time the School was held in Africa, and it was therefore an honour for South Africa to be selected to host it.
The school included lecture courses which covered topics in particle physics and instrumentation, delivered by researchers actively involved in the field, who are recognized to be experts in their particular field of detector development. Lecture courses were augmented by "hands-on" participation in eleven laboratory experiments that were designed to demonstrate the material presented. Review talks on the application of detectors to various problems in and outside of high energy physics filled out the program.
This was truly an International School - 98 participants - with postgraduates from over 34 countries attending. A second very important aim was to foster relations between these young physicists and their peers thereby ensuring greater participation in future collaborations.
Due to the fact that the National Accelerator Centre is the major research facility for nuclear physics in South Africa, and is actively involved in training postgraduates at all levels, it was uniquely positioned to host the school.
The School was opened by Dr Rob Adam, Director-General of the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology on Monday 26th March.
The organizers would like to thank the sponsors of the school, namely - Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, National Research Foundation and the National Accelerator Centre.
Chairman : Local Organizing Committee - Dr Kobus Lawrie, National Accelerator Centre
Chairman : International Organizing Committee - Prof A. Walenta, Siegen, Germany.
Secretary : Local Organizing Committee - Naomii Haasbroek, NAC
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