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The 2005 Particle
Accelerator Conference (PAC05) took place on May 16-20, 2005, at
the Knoxville Convention Center in Knoxville, Tennessee. This was
the 21st occurrence of this biennial conference, which is the main
event in the professional life of accelerator and beam engineers
and scientists. The conference was jointly hosted by the Oak Ridge
National Laboratory Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) - the largest
accelerator construction project in the United States - and Thomas
Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab), Newport News, Virginia.
The conference was sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers under the Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society
(IEEE/NPSS) and the American Physical Society (APS) Division of
Physics of Beams (APS/DPB). As usual, the conference covered new
developments in all aspects of the science, technology, and use
of particle accelerators. Unique to PAC05 was the special theme
of “World Year of Physics,” as declared by the United
Nations (www.physics2005.org/)
in honor of the 100th anniversary of Einstein's three discoveries:
light quanta, Brownian motion, and the special theory of relativity.
These discoveries had, and continue to have, a remarkable impact
on science.
The Conference Proper
The conference and the exciting program attracted more than 1400
accelerator specialists to Knoxville during the week, making the
event the second largest PAC ever. Geographically, 59% of the attendees
were from the United States, 25% from Europe, 15% from Asia, and
1% from the Middle East, South America, and as far away as Australia.
Almost 1400 (1359 precisely during the conference and 1388 now)
papers were processed during the conference and will soon be published
on the Joint Accelerator Conferences Web Site (www.JACoW.org/).
The conference was also the occasion for honoring members of the
accelerator community. The IEEE/NPSS Particle Accelerator Science
and Technology Award was given to Ronald Davidson and Thomas Roser.
The APS 2005 Wilson Prize was awarded to Keith R. Symon. The U.S.
Particle Accelerator School prizes for Achievement in Accelerator
Physics and Technology were given to Anton Piwinski and Wim Leemans
and the APS/DPB 2005 Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Beam
Physics to Eduard Pozdeyev.
PAC05 and the World Year of Physics
Einstein was ever present throughout the conference, beginning with
the PAC05 web site (www.sns.gov/pac05/),
which included an Einstein quotation on every page, and through
several special activities during the week. Highlights included
a Tuesday evening violin and piano concert by Jack Liebeck and Inon
Barnatan, introduced by physics professor Brian Foster. On Wednesday
afternoon, the U.S., Asian and European Particle Accelerator Conference
series joined forces to propose a special session, “Einstein
and the World Year of Physics,” organized by Swapan Chattopadhyay
(JLab). The session was chaired by Bill Madia (Battelle) and included
four presentations relating present-day research to Einstein’s
legacy. Speakers were Michael Turner [National Science Foundation
(NSF)], Makoto Kobayashi (KEK), Yoichiro Suzuki (University of Tokyo),
and Carlo Rubbia (CERN).
To draw the public’s attention to the World Year of Physics,
an “Einstein in the City” festival was organized together
with the City of Knoxville. The festival followed the “Einstein
and the World Year of Physics” session and drew conference
participants and several hundred additional people to the World’s
Fair Park, outside the convention center. Part of the festival was
a science fair for local high school students; cash prizes between
$200 and $5,000 were awarded to the projects judged to be the best
by a select team of conference participants. A special panel of
four physicists, moderated by Bill Madia, answered science-related
questions from the public for about an hour. Questions included
everything from “Why is science useful?” to “How
many stars are in the universe?” to “What does an accelerator
do?” Other activities included an appearance by “Einstein
the Bird,” a talking parrot from the local zoo, bluegrass music
from a local band, as well as lots of good food and drink.
PAC05 and the SNS
While PAC05 ended officially on Friday afternoon, about 400 participants
extended their stay by one more day to visit the SNS site. SNS is
going into its last year before the first beam is scheduled to hit
the mercury target and the first neutrons will be channeled to instruments.
So far, beam has been commissioned to the end of the normal conducting
linac, up to 157 MeV, and soon the superconducting linac will be
turned on to boost the energy to 1.0 GeV. Later this year the compressor
will be commissioned in preparation for user operation, to begin
next summer. Tour participants will be among the last people to
get a glimpse of what has been going on at the site over the last
five years before much of the facility will be closed to visitors.
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