Welcome to our KEK Archives Office !
 
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), since founded as National Laboratory for High Energy Physics in 1971, has been the center of particle physics in Japan with the 12GeV PS, Photon Factory, TRISTAN and KEK-B Factory and has produced many splendid results.

The reorganization of KEK in 1997 made former Institute for Nuclear Study (INS) of the University of Tokyo to join into the new KEK. As they had been the central research facility in nuclear science before former KEK was established, this made us able to access to their enormous amount of historically valuable documents in particle and nuclear physics.

The KEK Archives Office was created in 2004 under the former Director General Hirotaka Sugawara.

What are the "historical materials - archives" for us? We occasionally find quite valuable information either piled up or discarded.They often are very important for historians and physicist who will plan for future.

The past information could give a great insight for how to proceed. KEK archives office has been working hard to make these disregarded historical evidences into a usable form for all occasions. One of our activities includes uncovering the historical evidences of KEK which were not known before in a open way. This includes interviewing the people who played an active role in the past. We also convert drawings and pictures into a digital form so that they can be kept for a long time. This will be made into KEK Digital Archives open to public. We are part of international effort to link archive records between organizations all over the world. We are fighting with mounds of files and data daily. We occasionally make exhibition on particular subject of science. One of this was an exhibition of the Nobel Laureate Shin-ichiro Tomonaga and the history of Kyodo Riyo Kenkyusho, which was a new form of carrying out research by having a national facility (such as KEK) as the central facility and all universities merge in. We are planning to establish a system for finding information through a worldwide network. We could surprise you.

The author of this article, Dr. Michiko Sekimoto is the head of KEK Archives Office. She has been one of the key person in proton synchrotron related experiments. main main main.