People and things enormous progress achieved in re­ periment using this technique has On people cent years in understanding and contributed new limits on neutrino- developing calorimetric techniques. less double beta decay (see page The large number of ongoing 14), in this case tellurium-130 go­ William Happer, formerly at Prince­ projects and the encouraging pro­ ing to xenon-130. The experiment, ton, has become Director of the Of­ gress in this field, mainly under the by a Milan team (University and fice of Energy Research in the US pressure to define the experimental INFN) led by Ettore Fiorini, began in Department of Energy, the govern­ programme at the LHC and the August in the Italian Gran Sasso ment department funding most of SSC, led to the decision to contin­ underground Laboratory. the US particle physics pro­ ue the series of Conferences on an The detector/source is a 35 gramme. He takes over from Depu­ annual basis (the first meeting was gram crystal of tellurium oxide ty Director James F. Decker, who held last year at Fermilab). Applica­ operating at about 20 millikelvin in had been Acting Director. Dr. Hap­ tions are open to host the future a dilution refrigerator specially per also becomes Science and meetings. made with previously tested low Technology Adviser to Energy Se­ The Capri meeting was organ­ radioactivity materials. cretary James D. Watkins. ized by A.Ereditato (Napoli), P.Jen- No sign of neutrinoless double Emilio Picasso of CERN receives ni (CERN), V.Palladino (Napoli) and beta decay has been found with a one of this year's prestigious Ital- A.Para (Fermilab) with the support lower limit for the half life of more gas Prizes for Research and Innova­ 20 of the Italian INFN and University of than 3 x 10 years after only 500 tion awarded to European Commu­ Napoli. Some 120 participants at­ hours of effective running time, ex­ nity scientists. As Director of tended. tending the previous limit by al­ CERN's 2 7-kilometre LEP ring con­ most two orders of magnitude. struction project, his work was of 'historical importance', the citation reads. Thermal detectors: Italy's President Francesco Cossiga visited CERN on 25 October. At the Delphi under­ Robert Cahn becomes Director of Initial results ground experimental area at LEP were (left the Physics Division at the La­ to right) Delphi spokesman Ugo Amaldi, CERN Council President Sir William Mitchell, wrence Berkeley Laboratory, ena­ President Cossiga, and CERN Director Gen­ bling Piermaria Oddone to act full Thermal detectors are widely re­ eral Carlo Rubbia. garded as being likely to contribute time as the Laboratory's Deputy Di­ to new precision physics, and (Photo CERN HI 43.10.91/13) rector. many groups in Europe, USA and Japan are presently developing ex­ amples such as superheated super­ conducting grains, superconducting tunnel junctions and bolometers (September 1988, page 23). Especially popular is the latter, using as detector a pure diamag- netic and dielectric crystal. Its heat capacity at low temperature (pro­ portional to the cube of the ratio between operating and Debye tem­ peratures) can become so small that even the tiny amount of ener­ gy left by a particle causes a rise of temperature measurable by a suita­ ble thermistor. The technical development of these detectors has been impres­ sive over the last years and an ex­ CERN Courier, December 1991 25 .