Accelerating interest: Program launches outreach efforts

On Tuesday, April 28, Argonne National Laboratory and Fermilab will present the Midwest launch of the Accelerator Stewardship Test Facility Pilot Program.

The launch is part of a national effort by the Department of Energy Office of Science to increase outreach to partners in academia and industry with the goal of advancing particle accelerator applications in energy and the environment, medicine, national security, and discovery science.

At the daylong launch event, to be held from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., representatives from industrial firms and economic development organizations throughout the Midwest will have an opportunity to tour both laboratories' world-class accelerator technology development and testing facilities. Buses will be provided to take attendees from Fermilab in Batavia to Argonne, just outside Lemont.

The event also will include a 90-minute "speed dating" session, where attendees will talk with particle accelerator experts from Argonne and Fermilab, learn about the laboratories' available infrastructure, other facilities, and discuss possible accelerator-related partnerships.

"With the Accelerator Stewardship Test Facility Pilot Program, Fermilab and Argonne are opening the doors of our world-class accelerator research infrastructure and test facilities," said Nigel Lockyer, director of Fermilab. "This event is an important part of our effort to find new, high-impact ways to work with our partners in industry to develop new accelerator technologies and applications across a wide range of sectors."

"At Fermilab and Argonne, we offer some of the world's most advanced facilities for the development and testing of accelerators," said Robert Kephart, director of the Illinois Accelerator Research Center at Fermilab. "We hope this new program will serve as a catalyst to broaden and strengthen the industrial community that relies on accelerators and accelerator technologies to create important products and systems."

"Today there are more than 30,000 accelerators in operation around the world, and the vast majority of them are being used by industry," said Stuart Henderson, director of the Advanced Photon Source Upgrade Project at Argonne. "A beam of the right particles with the right energy at the right intensity can shrink a tumor, produce cleaner energy, spot suspicious cargo, clean up dirty drinking water, map a protein, design a new drug, make a heat-resistant automotive cable, diagnose a disease, implant ions in a semiconductor, or package a Thanksgiving turkey. So this program will be relevant to businesses across a wide range of sectors."

The morning plenary session will feature a presentation by Andria Winters, assistant director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. Eric Colby, director of the DOE Accelerator Stewardship Pilot Program, will participate via a video feed.

Registration is free, but tour space is limited. To register, view the agenda, or get details, go to iarc.fnal.gov/pilot/index.html.

For more information, contact Kurt Riesselmann at Fermilab at media@fnal.gov or (630) 840-3351, or Elizabeth Austin at Argonne at eaustin@anl.gov or (630) 252-5514.