The President of INFN in Italy Visit KEK Tsukuba to Discuss the Current and Future Collaboration

On August 31, 2017, Prof. Fernando Ferroni, President of the National Institute of for Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Italy visited KEK Tsukuba campus to discuss the current and future collaboration between INFN and KEK. KEK Director General, Dr. Masanori Yamauchi, Executive Director, Dr. Yasuhiro Okada, the KEK and Italian researchers working on Belle II and T2K experiments warmly welcomed the delegation.

INFN is the coordinating institution for nuclear, particle and astroparticle physics in Italy which have been participating in CERN project, developing many cutting edge technologies and devices. INFN and KEK have long been working together on joint researches under their collaboration agreement.

At the conference of 20 members, Prof. Ferroni remarked that INFN was among competitors belonging to BaBer group, but now is a strong collaborator for BelleⅡexperiment. After KEK briefly introduced the joint research activities in BelleⅡand T2K experiments, INFN proposed future collaboration on personnel exchange at all levels, making use of matching fund scheme of Japanese and Italy government: 1. Summer student program, 2. Graduate student support and joint PhD titles, 3. Joint postdoc program, 4. Fellowship program. INFN and KEK decided to discuss such further collaboration in near future. And they also exchanged opinions on International Linear Collider (ILC) project.

After lunch meeting, the delegation took a lab tour to Computer Science Center, Belle II detector, Super KEKB accelerator and Accelerator Test Facility (ATF), listening to the explanation from researchers.