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The 2^nd Joint Asian Accelerator Workshop held in Korea

7 Dec 2010

On November 29 and 30, the second Joint Asian Accelerator Workshop (JAAWS) was held at Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Korea.

JAAWS was launched last year, as a new initiative to enhance collaborative activities among Asian accelerator-based laboratories in the fields of accelerator-related technology development, including detector-related research and development, and related applications. With common recognition of the increasing importance of cooperation in Asia, the idea of JAAWS was originally proposed by the directors of several labs in five countries: China, India, Japan, Korea and Russia.

This workshop was attended by about 80 researchers from these five countries and Taiwan. On the first day, after reviewing the first workshop, participants discussed the present status and future projects in five topic areas: R&D for innovative accelerators, detector technology development, and the relevance of accelerators and related technologies to photon science, to medicine and industry, and to hadron (neutron) science.

In this second workshop, a joint session for the hadron and detector topics was held for the first time, showing that JAAWS is creating lively interaction among different research fields that will in turn promote more fruitful collaboration. There was active discussion in each topic area. Participants discussed their laboratories' current status and expected future developments, the possibilities for international cooperation, and common difficulties faced by researchers in each country, such as shortages of some research-related materials, intellectual property complications, and import/export restrictions.

On the next day, conveners from each topic area summarized the discussion and proposed future activities. To expand the R&D on accelerator and detector development, participants recognized that it was important for Asia to promote international collaboration and to solve common problems in their part of a tripolar world, capitalizing on each country's strengths.

At the closing session, Professor In Soo Ko, Advisor to the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory and Chair of the Asian Committee for Future Accelerators (ACFA), who acted as the chair of this workshop, proposed that JAAWS should progress to the next stage and become a forum that plays a central role in collaborations on accelerator- and detector-related technology development and applications of those technologies, changing its name to Asian Forum for Accelerators and Detectors (AFAD). He also proposed that AFAD should closely cooperate with ACFA from now on. These proposals were accepted by all participants.

The next meeting will be held in India in January 2012.