THE FOURTH Asian Particle Accelerator Conference (APAC) 2007, witnessing participation of 111 scientists from outside Asia and 250 from within the continent, began at Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT) on Monday with Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Dr Anil Kakodkar expressing need to draw more youths in diverse scientific fields. “Science has to be made a driving force for young people,” he said.
Delivering the inaugural speech at the five-day conference that will hold 59 invited talks, 17 oral contributions and 259 poster papers, Dr Kakodkar said that accelerators form necessary tool for research and with growth of this capability it has become possible to expand research frontiers.
He said India was happy to be part of the well-coordinated effort being made in Asia, Europe and US to pursue, consolidate and learn from each other scientific development and capabilities. “But we have to organise ourselves in-house. We have to devise modalities for handholding between scientists and industry and customise the skill to meet industry’s requirement. So while we participate at the international level, we have to be consistent with domestic programmes remaining aware of the resource limitations,” he added.
Although developing technologies for other users, he said, is comprehensive and requires expertise, it will provide wider opportunities for young to make their career choices. He said that Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and Department of Science and Technology have an internal mechanism to ensure coordination among all Indian scientists.
{{/usCountry}}Although developing technologies for other users, he said, is comprehensive and requires expertise, it will provide wider opportunities for young to make their career choices. He said that Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and Department of Science and Technology have an internal mechanism to ensure coordination among all Indian scientists.
{{/usCountry}}The conference began with welcome speech by RRCAT Director Dr Vinod Chandra Sahni who said India was passing through and evolutionary phase in all fields, including science and technology. Asian Committee for Future Accelerators (ACFA) Professor Shin-ichi Kurokawa presided over the inaugural session. The conference that will end on February 2 is organised by RRCAT and DAE under auspices of ACFA.
An industrial exhibition of 13 stalls has been organised at the venue to mark the occasion. The suppliers of instruments needed for accelerators have exhibited their products that include nuclear instrument module carats, nuclear radiation detectors, low light measuring devices, photo multiplier tubes, data acquisition systems, multi-layer carbon films, solid state high pulse modulators. The exhibitors are from India, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Romania, Canada and Japan.