Year 3/4 Adventures in Wonderland
Last month, University of Liverpool students from years 3 and 4 were given the exciting opportunity to go and explore Daresbury Laboratory. Not just the birthplace of Lewis Carroll, Daresbury is home to a wide portfolio of physics and in particular accelerator science research.
The visit was the perfect opportunity to see how the physics skills and knowledge learnt within a degree are applied in industry and academia. Experiences of the Medical Applications module were called upon as students encountered Varian Medical Systems’ efforts to design, build and test the latest generation of radiotherapy systems that are found in hospitals.
Accelerator Physics, Electromagnetism and Particle Physics were very much the theme when looking at the large magnets and accelerating cavities being assembled ready for shipping to the European Spallation Source (ESS, Sweden), as well as components for the High Luminosity LHC upgrade.
The excursion was organized by Drs Chris Edmonds and Tessa Charles.
Year 3 & 4 students observe as one of the 84 ESS accelerating cavities is prepared for cooling to -271°C. Once the cavity has been tested it will be shipped to Sweden and installed at the new neutron facility.