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ACFA Members Meet in Shanghai
13 Dec, 2011
On November 24, members of the Asian Committee for Future Accelerators (ACFA) met to discuss recent research activities and future plans in the field of accelerator-based science in Asia and Oceania at the 18th ACFA meeting held in Shanghai, China. The meeting was hosted by the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP).
After Prof Amit Roy, Chair of ACFA, welcomed the members and thanked Prof Zhentang Zhao for hosting the ACFA meeting, representatives from Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan reported on the current situation in their own countries. The representatives from three working groups; the high-intensity proton accelerator, the linear collider, and networking, as well as the Asian Linear Collider Steering Committee (ALCSC), also reported on their activities. These reports allowed participants to gain a good understanding of the status of accelerator-based science and the projects being established, planned or under construction in Asian region.
Through the discussion on the next Asian Forum for Accelerators and Detectors (AFAD) to be held in Kolkata, India, in 2012, participants agreed that each country/region should endeavor to implement effective programs. AFAD is an 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.
Participants also discussed the organization of the International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC) to be held in Shanghai in 2013. IPAC is the largest conference in the field of accelerator research, and was created through an amalgamation of the previous biennial Asian, European and North American Accelerator Conferences. At the meeting, Australia, Korea, and Taiwan expressed their interest in hosting the IPC ’16, the meeting to be held in 2016 in the Asian region. The ACFA will discuss and announce which country has been selected to host the conference later this year.
With the objective of furthering cooperation and expanding activities, ACFA organizes the accelerator schools to train and nurture the next generation of accelerator scientists. This coming October, a new series of seminars to be held by the Asia Europe Pacific School of High Energy Physics (AEPS) will be begin in Fukuoka, Japan. This school aims to provide young physicists with an opportunity to learn about recent advances in elementary particle physics from world-leading researchers. A wide range of topics related to high energy physics will be covered from an experimental and phenomenological perspective, with a focus on accelerator-based programs in Europe and Asia, and related fields such as astro-particle physics and cosmological aspects of particle physics
The primary purpose of ACFA is to strengthen regional collaboration in accelerator-based science. In particular, ACFA seeks to find ways in which the various parties can cooperate. ACFA consists of 14 Asian countries/ regions with Amit Roy, Director of IUAC, India, serving as the ACFA chairperson. He was appointed to the position in January 2011 and will remain in this role until December 2012.
The 19th ACFA meeting will be held at the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC), Kolkata, India, in February 2012.
