Daresbury Laboratory

Coordinates: 53°20′35″N 02°38′26″W / 53.34306°N 2.64056°W

Daresbury Tower, formerly the Nuclear Structure Facility.

Daresbury Laboratory is a scientific research laboratory based at Sci-Tech Daresbury science and innovation campus near Daresbury in Cheshire, England. The laboratory began operations in 1962 and was officially opened on 16 June 1967 as the Daresbury Nuclear Physics Laboratory by the then Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Harold Wilson. It is run by the Science and Technology Facilities Council with around three hundred full-time staff. The present director is Prof. Susan Smith.

Facilities

Daresbury Laboratory is renowned for its world leading scientific research in fields such as accelerator science, bio-medicine, physics, chemistry, materials, engineering and computational science.

Employing around 300 staff, the facilities are used by scientists and engineers, from both the university research community and industrial research base.

The laboratory is based at Sci-Tech Daresbury, one of two national science and innovation campuses, which supports scientists, researchers and industry by providing a collaborative and innovative environment to perform cutting-edge research.

Within the portfolio of research and facilities:

• VELA (Accelerator), an electron compact linear accelerator, based around an RF photocathode gun.
• CLARA, an electron linear accelerator to be utilised for research in free-electron lasers.
• ALICE (accelerator), an electron accelerator previously known as ERLP (Energy Recovery Linac Prototype).
• The Hartree Centre, a high performance computing and data analytics research facility.^[1]
• SuperSTEM, a high resolution aberration-corrected STEM is housed on the site. The facility belongs to EPSRC.
• HPCx, a supercomputer (closed, replaced by the UK national supercomputing service, HECToR, based in Edinburgh).^[2]

Awards

In 2009 the laboratory was awarded the title of the "Most Outstanding Science Park" at the UK Science Parks Association.^[3]

See also

• Alec Merrison Daresbury Laboratory's first director
• Cockcroft Institute International centre for accelerator science and technology at Sci-Tech Daresbury
• Van de Graaff generator The former Nuclear Structure Facility at Daresbury was based on a Van de Graaff accelerator
• Arthur Dooley The Laboratory has a piece 'Splitting of the Atom', unveiled in 1971 constructed from magnetic steel and two 37 inch pole tips taken from the first cyclotron to operate outside the USA."Public Monument and Sculpture Association Record". Retrieved July 9, 2010.

References

1. "£30m grant announced by George Osborne at Daresbury Science Park". Retrieved Feb 1, 2013.
2. http://www.hpcx.ac.uk/
3. Clay, Oliver (24 September 2009). "Science park hailed as a UK trendsetter". Runcorn Weekly News (Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales). p. 3.

External links

• Daresbury Laboratory at Sci-Tech Daresbury
• The Science and Technology Facilities Council
• Synchrotron Radiation Source
• Accelerator Science and Technology Centre
• 4GLS - the proposed Fourth Generation Light Source