Technology Meets Research : 60 Years of CERN Technology: Selected Highlights

"Big" science and advanced technology are known to cross-fertilize. This book emphasizes the interplay between particle physics and technology at CERN that has led to breakthroughs in both research and technology over the laboratory's first 60 years. The innovations, often the work of individuals or by small teams, are illustrated with highlights describing selected technologies from the domains of accelerators and detectors. The book also presents the framework and conditions prevailing at CERN that enabled spectacular advances in technology and contributed to propel the European organization into the league of leading research laboratories in the world.

While the book is specifically aimed at providing information for the technically interested general public, more expert readers may also appreciate the broad variety of subjects presented. Ample references are given for those who wish to further explore a given topic.

Readership: Research scientists, physicists, engineers and administrators at accelerator laboratories; general readers; undergraduates and graduates in physics and electrical engineering.

Christian Fabjan is an experimental particle physicist, who spent the major part of his career at CERN, with leading involvement in several of the major CERN programmes. At the Intersecting Storage Rings he concentrated on Strong interaction physics and the development of new experimental techniques and followed at the Super Synchrotron with experiments in the Relativistic Heavy Ion programme. At the Large Hadron Collider he focused on the development of several experimental techniques, and participated to the ALICE experiment as Technical Coordinator. He is affiliated with the Vienna University of Technology and was, most recently, leading the institute of High Energy Physics of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Thomas Taylor is an applied physicist. He started his professional career developing microwave vacuum tubes, which was excellent training for working on accelerators. At CERN since 1967 he specialized in the design and fabrication of magnets for accelerators and experiments, working for the ISR, LEP and LHC projects. He was responsible for the high-luminosity insertions at LEP and the LHC, where he also accumulated wider managerial experience. Since retirement from CERN in 2003 he has lectured on accelerator science, is called upon to participate in magnet reviews and accelerator advisory committees, and has been contributing as an external expert to the work of the magnet division of ITER.

Daniel Treille is a French physicist, graduate from Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris. He got his PhD at LAL, Orsay (France) in 1967 and became CERN research scientist in 1976. Involved in a succession of experimental programs at PS, SPS, LEP and LHC (CMS), he was the co-founder and spokesman of the experiments NA14 at SPS and DELPHI at LEP. Co-author of about 950 papers, plenary speaker in several international conferences, he gave many lectures, courses and talks for non-specialists. Former member of various scientific committees in Europe and Canada, he chaired the French IN2P3 Scientific Council in 2004–2008. In 1996 he received the Doctor Honoris Causa of Stockholm University (Sweden).

Horst Wenninger, following his PhD thesis work in nuclear physics at University of Heidelberg in 1965, Horst Wenninger joint CERN in 1968 as a member of the team building the Big European Bubble Chamber (BEBC). Until his retirement from CERN in 2003, he worked at CERN in the research sector responsible for the Experimental Facility Division (EF) supporting the LEP experiment collaborations and in the accelerator sector preparing the LHC project in the AT/LHC Division. After five year of service as Research/Technical Director; he continued R&D activities within a CERN-DESY collaboration. Since 2003 Horst Wenninger is CERN visiting scientist. Over the last 35 years he was also member of various advisory boards in Germany (BMBF, DESY, FZJ, GSI) Helsinki Institute of Physics, Norwegian Research Council, European Physical Society, Facility for Antiproton Ion Research, FAIR/GSI.