In the latest issue of the Nikhef magazine DIMENSIES, the people behind the work are at the centre of attention. Particle physics is a matter of technology, measurements, calculations and thinking. The results are insights into the building blocks of the universe. But it is the researchers and technicians who do it.
The fourth issues of DIMENSIES full of news and background stories appears in the middle of the corona pandemic in the autumn of 2020, as many Nikhef employees work from home or, at most, occasionally at the institute. Even in difficult times, they are driven and involved, writes Nikhef director Stan Bentvelsen in his foreword.
The magazine contains stories about, among other things, the Electronics Technology department and its central role in many experiments. It portrays the institute’s theorists, who think and calculate their way through the world of particles. Also special is the lockdown story about a complicated upgrade of the LHCb detector at CERN in Geneva, which was supervised this summer by Nikhef engineers via online video connection from Amsterdam. Member of the CERN council Eric Laenen discusses the future of European particle physics.
Nikhef DIMENSIES appears twice a year. All editions are available as browsable pdf and for download at www.nikhef.nl/nikhefdimensies. Paper copies can be ordered via info@nikhef.nl.