KEK

For other uses, see KEK (disambiguation).
High Energy Accelerator
Research Organization
高エネルギー加速器研究機構
Established 1 April 1997
Headquarters Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
Director General
Atsuto Suzuki
Affiliations Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
Website http://www.kek.jp/en/

The High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (高エネルギー加速器研究機構 Kō Enerugī Kasokuki Kenkyū Kikō), known as KEK, is a Japanese organization whose purpose is to operate the largest particle physics laboratory in Japan, situated in Tsukuba, Ibaraki prefecture. It was established in 1997. The term "KEK" is also used to refer to the laboratory itself, which employs approximately 900 employees.[1] KEK's main function is to provide the particle accelerators and other infrastructure needed for high-energy physics, material science, structural biology, radiation science, computing science, nuclear transmutation and so on. Numerous experiments have been constructed at KEK by the internal and international collaborations that have made use of them. Makoto Kobayashi, emeritus professor at KEK, is known globally for his work on CP-violation, and was awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Coordinates: 36°08′55″N 140°04′37″E / 36.14861°N 140.07694°E / 36.14861; 140.07694

History

KEK was established in 1997 in a reorganization of the Institute of Nuclear Study, the University of Tokyo (established in 1955), the National Laboratory for High Energy Physics (established in 1971), and the Meson Science Laboratory of the University of Tokyo (established in 1988).[2] However, the reorganization was not a simple merge of the aforementioned laboratories. As such, KEK was not the only new institute created at that time, because not all of the work of the parent institutions fell under the umbrella of high energy physics; for example, the Center for Nuclear Study, the University of Tokyo, was concurrently established for low energy nuclear physics in a research partnership with RIKEN.

Organization

KEK has four main laboratories-

Scientists in KEK conduct training for Ph.D. course students of the School of High Energy Accelerator Science in the Graduate University for Advanced Studies.

Location

Particle Accelerators

Current Complex

BELLE detector
KEK e+/e- Linac

Shutdown complex

Running and Future Plans

Computers[5]

KEK has computers which are fastest class in Japan, and Computing Research Center in KEK manages the computer systems. The theoretical operation performance of SR16000, a super computer made by HITACHI, is 46 TFLOPS. The theoretical operation performance of Blue Gene Solution, a super computer made by IBM, is 57.3 TFLOPS. These super computers had been used to study quantum chromodynamics and numerical accelerator physics mainly, and these super computers have been shut down in order to introduce a next super computer in the future. Computing Research Center also manages the other computer systems: KEKCC, B-factory Computer System and Synchrotron Light Computer System.

KEK hosted the first web site in Japan on September 30, 1992. The original web site can still be seen.[6]

See also

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, May 07, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.