UK news from CERN Issue 23: 18 June 2013
In this special issue: Swansea sparks – a 50 year association that continues to influence CERN science Spreading the word – a new documentary series focuses on the Welsh contribution to CERN Who’s who in the documentary? Dates for the diary
Swansea sparks One of the first Swansea alumni to work at CERN was the late Eifionydd Jones. First Swansea University has been the standard working at CERN in 1959, his obituary in 1990 bearer for Wales at CERN for more than 50 described him as "prominent among CERN's years. Today, that involvement is as a very gifted accelerator physicists". His contribution active group within the ALPHA antihydrogen to the Intersecting Storage Rings, the world's collaboration on the Antiproton Decelerator. But first hadron collider, is still revered and his the university was pivotal to the early legacy undoubtedly lives on. development of CERN, and its alumni continue to play important roles in the development of the In March 1969, Colin Grey Morgan wrote a LHC and future international accelerator reference letter supporting his first PhD student projects. to go and spend some time at CERN. That letter had a profound influence on the future Colin Grey Morgan set up the initial link between career of a miner's son from Aberdare, and on the university and CERN in the late 1950s. At scientific developments at CERN that continue the time, Swansea specialised in high voltage today; Lyn Evans worked on a number of discharge physics. This expertise was useful for accelerator development projects including the accelerator development, but it was the Proton Synchrotron, SPS and LEP before department's knowledge of spark generation becoming project leader for the LHC. that was to make the first of many important contributions. Swansea theorists were working Having overseen the construction and early at CERN in the early-mid 60s developing spark operations of the LHC, Lyn officially retired from chambers - the first electronic readout devices CERN in 2011. But he continues to take an for physics experiments. The move away from international role in accelerator science as labour intensive bubble chambers paved the Linear Collider Director for the proposed CLIC way for the sophisticated tracker systems that and ILC projects. are essential for reconstructing collisions within each of the LHC detectors. Lyn has never forgotten his roots and he hopes that his career, and the science that he has "The university has always been committed to helped to realise, will encourage and inspire encouraging young researchers to participate in other young scientists and engineers to play its activities at CERN," says Mike Charlton, their own part in discovering more about the Head of the Physics Department at Swansea. Universe in which we live. "That mission continues today with master’s students, PhDs and post docs working on the The last PhD student that Colin Grey Morgan ALPHA experiment." supervised before his retirement was Rhodri Jones. Now Head of the Beam Instrumentation group at CERN, Rhodri first came to CERN as
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Written and edited by Stephanie Hills, UK Communications and Innovation Officer @ CERN [email protected] or Stephanie.hills@cern.ch the result of a meeting with another Swansea more intriguing than most – would it be possible alumnus. to make a two-part documentary about CERN for Welsh-language broadcaster S4C, presented by Welsh-speakers from the CERN community?
Rhodri Jones explains the “The idea for the documentary came after I saw safety equipment needed for working in the tunnel the LHC exhibition at the 2012 Eisteddfod,” says Elin Rhys of Telesgop, and producer of the © CERN/S Hills documentary. “Until then, I didn’t know about the long relationship between Swansea University and CERN. With the discovery of the In 1996, the CERN rugby club was looking for Higgs boson, that was definitely a story worth new blood. Although this was not the main telling. In addition, the last science programme objective of Brennan Goddard's visit to his old on S4C was 20 years ago and I thought it was Physics Department at the University, it was one about time that we had another one!” of the enticing factors that he used to encourage Rhodri Jones to apply for a CERN Fellowship. By the law of averages, you would expect to have a few Welsh-speakers within the 2000- "I think I was lucky to come at a very exciting strong ‘Brits@CERN’ network, but how many, time for CERN with LHC construction just and would they be willing to get involved? having been approved," says Rhodri. "I was working on new beam instrumentation for the A tentative email to the network resulted in a LHC and saw several of the projects I was number of very enthusiastic responses as well involved with go from the design phase right as several tip-offs about people who might be through to construction, installation and too shy to respond personally. A few weeks commissioning. later Elin Rhys, the producer, visited CERN to meet the volunteers, and the detailed planning Rhodri joined the CERN staff in 1999, later process began. becoming responsible for the LHC beam position and tune systems. He became leader of the Beam Instrumentation Group in 2009. Filming in the LHC "I think my proudest moment was that day in tunnel
2008 when I saw real beam data from all the ©CERN/ Shills systems I'd been involved with flicker onto the computer screens in the CERN Control Centre!"
"These big projects don't come along very often and to finally see something you've worked on Fortunately, the volunteers are spread across for over 10 years become reality was very CERN, some working on the accelerator satisfying. CERN really is a unique place complex, others on LHC experiments, and some bringing together experts from a very wide on the smaller experiments. Some focus on variety of specialisations - I think it would be data analysis, others are hands-on very difficult to find such a stimulating working experimentalists or computing experts. There environment anywhere else." are PhD students and early career scientists as well as more experienced researchers. Spreading the word (in Welsh) PhD student Emma Kuwertz is one of the CERN receives countless requests from TV volunteers. Taking part was an easy decision, “I crews and production companies to make think that outreach is so very important for the programmes about the people who work here science community. It's not only about recruiting and their research. One recent request was new young scientists - though that's a big part of Page 2
Written and edited by Stephanie Hills, UK Communications and Innovation Officer @ CERN [email protected] or [email protected] it. I think that with these enormous experiments think that being at CERN has made me more being built at huge expense, it is imperative (and open to being based outside of the UK - I like wise) to keep the general public informed about the perspective being away from the familiarity why we're doing it. I grew up in Wales and of ‘home’ gives you.” whenever I go home friends and family always ask about what we actually do. I'm happy to Emma is immersing herself in the opportunities have the opportunity to contribute to an that CERN offers, “I feel like you are always explanation on a programme that'll be aired learning something here. As a scientist you are back home - and in Welsh!” getting paid to constantly gain new skills and cover new ground. I like the hunger for As soon as there’s a transmission date for the knowledge displayed here. Apart from programme, we’ll let you know! increasing your scientific knowledge, I find that you also learn a great deal about other cultures Who’s who in the documentary? while being based out here, since there are so many people from all over the world working in Emma Kuwertz (KTH Stockholm and ATLAS) the same place and often on similar things.
Halfway through her PhD with KTH Royal “Something else I try not to take for granted Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Emma is a while I am here is the endless opportunity to member of the ATLAS collaboration. She is attend seminars and workshops, in person and examining data from ATLAS, looking for for free (!), led by some of the greatest scientific evidence of supersymmetry. minds and often presenting the very latest results from interesting and ground-breaking experiments. I don't think there are many places Emma Kuwertz being in the world you could work and claim that!” interviewed outside the main ATLAS and CMS office building Kevin Cunnington (CERN) ©CERN/S Hills
Kevin Cunnington first came to CERN in 1996
as a Technician in the SPS Magnet Group,
taking care of all the dipole, quadrupole,
sextupole and octupole magnets as well as all “My first visit to CERN was on a trip with my the corrector and special magnets installed in university as a physics undergraduate - we were the SPS. all pretty excited about the prospect of CERN and the LHC, it all sounded very exciting and “At the time CERN was not widely known unless high-tech. I came ‘for real’ when I started my you were involved with physics,” says Kevin, PhD and took shifts in the ATLAS control room “but I had read some articles about the on the Liquid Argon Calorimeter desk.” experiments, and felt that it was something I
would like to be involved with. So I applied for a For a PhD student contemplating the next steps few posts and was lucky enough to be offered in her career, Emma believes her time at CERN one!” will help her to decide on the direction that she would like her career to take, “I think working Kevin now works in the CERN Control Centre as here gives a pretty realistic impression of what an accelerator operator for the SPS. But with life in particle physics can be like. Certainly I the accelerator complex undergoing think that the international environment at CERN maintenance and upgrades during the long is an asset, since it means that we all gain shutdown, Kevin is currently part of the quality experience in communicating and collaborating control team testing the reinforcement of the with people from all over. I would like to think I splices in the superconducting cables between will be equipped with a diverse skill set far the LHC magnets. With 10170 joins to check, broader than when I first arrived. I do definitely Kevin and his colleagues will be busy. He is Page 3
Written and edited by Stephanie Hills, UK Communications and Innovation Officer @ CERN [email protected] or [email protected] also applying his knowledge of the SPS much of his career has been focussed on magnets to several projects in the SPS. neutrino physics.
“CERN is a very special place and when you see the commitment and dedication that people invest in making it the success that it is, Tegid Jones and Rhodri Jones in the especially given the excellent year we have just CMS cavern had, it makes me feel very lucky, and proud, to have contributed to that success. But as we all © CERN/S Hills know this is just the beginning, and there is so much more to come, and it’s truly an exciting time to be part of such a great thing.” Although he officially retired seven years ago, John Evans (CERN) Tegid is still passionate about physics and takes a very keen interest in current developments. John Evans was working for British Aerospace He is also a proud Welshman so he was in Bristol in 1983 when he saw a newspaper delighted to take part in the S4C documentary. advert for a job at CERN working on the PS “We’re making important contributions to machine. international projects, and the people of Wales should be aware and proud of this. It is easy to express modern scientific ideas in Welsh – it’s an old culture but it definitely has contemporary
John Evans in the value.” CERN Computer Centre As a senior academic at UCL, Tegid was part of
©CERN/S Hills the ATLAS Collaboration but surprisingly, he had never been underground to see any of the LHC experiments. As part of the programme, Rhodri Jones took Tegid to see CMS. He worked in the Radio Frequency group before moving to IT to help look after the CERN It doesn’t matter how much you know about Electronics Design Automation engineering CERN because, like any first time visitor, Tegid software, “I find the work interesting as I get to was thrilled, “It was astonishing! You see the see projects from both the accelerator and pictures but you don’t realise how big it is!” physics sectors,” he explains “and I get to follow the beam from its source to the detectors. For Diary dates an electronics engineer, working here can be very gratifying as the work can be so varied and CERN Council Week – 19-21 June technically demanding.” CERN public open days – 28 and 29 September
As well as promoting CERN to a new audience, John is keen for the programme to showcase How to subscribe the interesting employment opportunities that are available. To subscribe to (or unsubscribe from) UK News from CERN, please contact Jill Little. Tegid Jones (UCL and ATLAS) Back issues of UK News from CERN are Tegid Jones first came to CERN as a summer available from the archive. student in 1962 when he worked on the linear accelerator. Involvement in other CERN This issue is also available in Welsh – download your experiments, notably Gargamelle, followed, but copy from the archive!
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Written and edited by Stephanie Hills, UK Communications and Innovation Officer @ CERN [email protected] or [email protected]