PEOPLE

June 2015

A CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR RESEARCH AND COOPERATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Interview with Giorgio Paolucci, Scientific Director of the SESAME project, for the construction of an infrastructure for research and advanced technology in Jordan.


SESAME (Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) has a history spanning more than 25 years. The international scientific project involves the construction in Allan, near Amman, Jordan, of a research infrastructure based on a third-generation synchrotron light source, a supermicroscope for applications in various fields: the first in the Middle East. SESAME will soon constitute an international centre of excellence for research and advanced technology, able to attract scientists from very different fields: from archaeology to biology, from chemistry to physics and medicine. It will work under the auspices of UNESCO that is also the custodian institution of the statutes of SESAME, which establishment was unanimously approved by the Executive Council of UNESCO, in May 2002. Today, a few months from becoming operational, thanks to the support of the worldwide community, SESAME is a shining example of global commitment, which sees countries that have never sat at the same table for a scientific project working together: Palestinian National Authority, Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey. In addition, Italy, France, Spain, Brazil, China, Germany, Greece, Japan, Kuwait, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, United States and Great Britain are also collaborating. Italy is participating with INFN, Sapienza University of Rome and the City of Science.

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NEWS

June 2015

Infrastructures
SULCIS: FROM THE MINE A RESOURCE FOR DARK MATTER AND APPLIED RESEARCH

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in June between INFN and the Autonomous Region of Sardinia for the forthcoming development of the Aria project, ...

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Research
DARK MATTER: POSSIBLE TRACES IN EXTRAGALACTIC RADIATION

Despite its name, dark matter might not be so dark, but associated with electromagnetic radiation. This is the hypothesis of a team of scientists ...

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Research
FIFTH TAU NEUTRINO DETECTED BY OPERA

The OPERA (Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus) international experiment at the INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratories has detected the fifth interaction of the tau neutrino. ...

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Research
BUGS LISTEN TO SPACE-TIME NOISE

HUMOR (Heisenberg Uncertainty Measured with Opto-mechanical Resonators), the first experiment to have designed and implemented a new way of probing space-time ...

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Awards
CLAUDIO PELLEGRINI WINS THE ENRICO FERMI AWARD

The Italian physicist Claudio Pellegrini has won the Enrico Fermi Award, one of the most prestigious scientific awards conferred by the US government. ...

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FOCUS ON


ULTRA FAST DETECTORS FOR PHOTOGRAPHING PARTICLES IN 4D

Develop a new ultra fast detector based on silicon and capable of providing a four-dimensional image of the particles that pass through it, simultaneously "photographing" both the position and time of transit of the particles: this is the core of the Ultra-Fast Silicon Detector (UFSD) project proposed by Nicolo Cartiglia of the INFN Turin section and winner of an ERC Advanced Grant of 1.8 million euros lasting five years. The project is based on the development of a new type of silicon detector, similar to those used in many particle physics experiments, but which is characterised by the ability to determine the time of transit of a particle in an extremely precise manner, with a resolution of approximately 10 picoseconds. That is: a detector capable of an accuracy of 10 thousandths of a billionth of a second and equal, in the spatial dimension, to that of a very thin hair. The possibility of adding the time dimension to the tracking process is critical to properly associate the particles that belong to the same event, discarding instead those that transited in the detector at subsequent times. This new type of technology can be applied in contexts in which the detector must be very thin or very resistant to radiation, such as for example in oncological hadrontherapy in which very high precision technologies are developed to be used in dosimetry. The activity that led to proposing the Ultra-Fast Silicon Detector project began in 2013 as part of the research of the Fifth National Commission INFN, which deals with technological and interdisciplinary research, and thanks to the collaboration between the Turin INFN division, Trento and Florence INFN groups and the Bruno Kessler Foundation (FBK). ......

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CONTACT



INFN - COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE

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+39 06 6868162

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euoffice@presid.infn.it

+32 2 2902 274

INFORMATION


cover image:

Gran Sasso National Laboratories: the DarkSide experiment is engaged in dark matter search

 

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