QUASARs participate in CI Postgraduate Conference 2022

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Oliver Stringer presenting ‘Developments towards Optimising a Gas Jet-Based Beam Profile Monitor for the HL-LHC'.

The annual Cockroft Institute Postgraduate Conference (CIPGC) was held on the 15th of November 2022 in the Merrison Lecture Theatre of Daresbury Laboratory. The CIPGC is an important annual event for all CI postgraduates and it provides a platform for them to network and present research results to their peers and experienced academics.

Participants at CI PGC 2022.

The day began with a welcome from the CI director, Prof Peter Ratoff. He reported highlights and feedback from the recent CI Scientific Board Committee meeting. The welcome was completed by the conference organiser, Dr Oznur Apsimon, who gave an overview of the plan for the day and introduced the panel members.

There were a total of 16 presentations from students from all four CI Universities - Lancaster, Liverpool, Manchester, Strathclyde - and ASTeC representing all areas of research at CI.

The QUASAR Group was well represented by PhD students Oliver Stringer, Luana Parsons Franca and Sara Morales Vigo who gave a talk during the Frontier Accelerator session, as well as Catherine Swain who presented a talk during the Novel Accelerator session.

Catherine Swain presenting her research on ‘Single shot emittance diagnostics development for AWAKE’.

The presenters were questioned by the audience and the judging panel composed of academic staff and CI partners. The panel then judged each presentation against a set of criteria and awarded prizes for the best three contributions.

Prizes awarded to, Alex Warwick (Moment tracking to improve PIC codes for astrophysical plasmas) and Sam Smith (Using optimisation techniques to improve industrial linac designs) from Lancaster University and Thomas Gallagher (Improved Beam Dynamics Through Control of Magnetic Fringe Fields) from The University of Liverpool. There was no order in this year’s prizes. The awards were announced by Prof Ratoff.

This year’s post-conference social event was back on! Many attendees and speakers enjoyed a few games of bowling in Warrington after the conference and following pizza night.