Beginning this January, a new course will be taught at the University of British Columbia (UBC). The course, “Accelerator Physics and Engineering: I. Electrons,” is part of a recent initiative to establish a graduate student program in accelerator physics. This initiative is an element of TRIUMF’s Five-Year Plan and is being led by Dr. Lia Merminga, Head of the Accelerator Division. As the TRIUMF lecturers prepare for the upcoming course, TRIUMF staff will have the opportunity to attend practice talks given from December 8 to February 27.
TRIUMF’s presence is uniquely beneficial to students, providing research facilities and educational opportunities that no single university could offer. From high school students to post-doctoral fellows, TRIUMF has had an important impact on educating and training youths in Canada and around the world. TRIUMF has offered numerous scholarships and awards for students, in addition to work opportunities, and hundreds of graduate students have completed their Masters or PhD theses through research performed at TRIUMF. As well, TRIUMF staff members have taught extensively as professors at member universities.
As part of the Five-Year Plan for 2010-2015, TRIUMF is expanding its education and outreach by establishing a graduate student program in accelerator science and technology. “Our vision is for TRIUMF to play an important role in training accelerator scientists by enabling UBC and other member universities to become among the few North American universities offering advanced degrees in accelerator physics,” says Dr. Merminga. “We envision a reciprocal relationship between TRIUMF and the universities, in which graduate students carry out their research at TRIUMF, utilizing the tremendous infrastructure already in place and contributing to frontier research in our field while TRIUMF scientists teach the fundamentals of accelerator physics and engineering at the universities.”
An enormous step towards reaching this goal is the creation of a new physics course to be taught at UBC. UBC will be offering the course, “Accelerator Physics and Engineering: I. Electrons,” for the first time in the 2009 Winter term, which stretches from January until April. The course will begin with a general introduction to particle accelerators, and then focus on electron accelerators, starting with injectors, RF acceleration, topics on RF superconductivity, beam dynamics, and applications of electron accelerators. The lectures will be delivered by TRIUMF accelerator physicists: Mike Craddock, Friedhelm Ames, Yu-Chiu Chao, Shane Koscielniak, Bob Laxdal, Lia Merminga, and Rick Baartman. This course will be followed by a second, “Accelerator Physics and Engineering: II. Protons and Ions,” which will focus on the physics and technology of accelerators such as the ones presently operating at TRIUMF.
Staff members at TRIUMF have the opportunity to attend rehearsals of the lectures, which will take place from December 8 until February 27. The practice lectures will be held Monday and Thursday at 3:00-4:30pm in the ISAC-II Conference Room. A preliminary outline of the course is available on the TRIUMF website.
The educating and training of the next generation make up an important part of TRIUMF’s outreach and form connections between the scientific and academic communities. The new graduate course will help expand on TRIUMF’s foundations in education and promote accelerator physics.
Kaitlan Huckabone
TRIUMF's Communications Assistant
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