Improved treatment for cancer and stronger homeland security will be among the goals of a new UK-wide centre of excellence for training the next generation of researchers to use laser-operated accelerator devices.
Physicists at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow are leading the Centre for Doctoral Training, which will also include Queen's University Belfast and the Universities of Huddersfield and Surrey. It will train more than 30 PhD students in the practical applications of innovative accelerators- powerful, compact devices driven by lasers or by intense high frequency electric fields.
The intensive training will cross traditional academic boundaries, combining physics with biology and medicine, and will offer students opportunities to work with industry and health authorities. This will also enhance their skills by giving them experience in leadership, entrepreneurship and management.
The centre is to receive £2 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), with matching support from the Universities and industry. It will be delivering applications for accelerator technology being developed in three existing projects involving Strathclyde, Queen's, Huddersfield and Surrey.
The announcement comes shortly after the University of Strathclyde unveiled plans for the Technology and Innovation Centre at Strathclyde (TIC) – a world-leading research hub for academics and industry in the centre of Glasgow. The new Centre for Doctoral Training will work in parallel with the TIC.
It also comes as the University of Strathclyde honours three Nobel Physics laureates with honorary degrees today (Wednesday, 4 May). Professor Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and Professor William Phillips, both joint winners in 1997, and Professor Theodor Hansch, joint winner in 2005, are due to receive Honorary Doctorates of Science in recognition of their pioneering work in Physics. Strathclyde has awarded honorary degrees to five other physics laureates in the past year.
This new Centre will sit alongside the University of Surrey's highly successful EPSRC Industrial Doctoral Centres (IDC) and like the IDCs, working with end users is a key factor in the success of this new CDT. Over 25 end users have expressed an interest in being involved and as part of the training, the postgraduate researchers will spend a 3-6 month placement with an end user.
The Training Centre will form part of Huddersfield's newly created International Institute for Accelerator Applications, and it will also draw on the university's research strengths in many areas. Its emphasis on putting students in real industrial placements draws strongly on Huddersfield's tradition and expertise.
This is the first time that a Northern Ireland university has been involved in a Doctoral Training Centre, which is one of the main postgraduate funding routes in the mainland UK. At Queen's University, the CDT will involve academics across the Centre for Plasma Physics and the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, to deliver advanced training in an area with clear potential for societal impact.
Professor Dino Jaroszynski, of Strathclyde's Department of Physics, is director of the Centre for Doctoral Training. He said: "We have great pleasure in setting up this centre, where the research and teaching will enable us to produce future leaders in the use of accelerators, which have become a vital tool in science and industry.
"Healthcare patients, national security and the economy all stand to benefit from this project- it will develop fully-rounded practitioners with physical, biological, clinical and industrial expertise who can respond to urgent needs in these areas.
"Members of the partnership are world leaders in their fields and have access to internationally competitive facilities- this will help us to produce the high calibre of experts urgently needed to meet the challenges of today's world. For example, there is a high demand for enhanced improved cancer therapy and we are investigating techniques to improve patients' treatment and quality of life."
Professor Karen Kirkby from the University of Surrey, who is the Centre's Academic Director said: "This is an exciting opportunity which addresses a national need and will give a new generation of researchers the multidisciplinary skills they need to bring about a paradigm shift in the way we design and use accelerators for a wide range of applications."
Professor Roger Barlow, from the University of Huddersfield, said: "This is great news. We were already celebrating the success of our latest EMMA accelerator project at Daresbury, which is an innovative accelerator with many vital applications: now we have a cohort of students who will be able to benefit from working on it."
Professor Marco Borghesi, from Queen's University, said: "This is a very exciting development in an area with real applicative prospects. It builds on two world-leading areas of research at Queen's – plasma accelerators in the Centre for Plasma Physics and radiobiology in the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology. The expertise and the excellent resources available to the two centres will provide a unique training environment and a key contribution to the CDT."
The centre will provide PhD training to around 10 students per year across the four universities. Students will take a range of compulsory courses in their first year and produce a 1,000-word research proposal in their second year. In their third year, they will spend at least six months on an industrial and clinical placement and, by the end of their final year, will have written at least one paper which has been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal or equivalent.