Jenna Crowe
Staff Writer
After being chosen as chair for the physics department, Philip Cole is heading to Vienna, Austria April 24 – 26 to finish coordinating the AccApp’ 17 international conference, which will be held in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada July 31 – August 4 this summer.
Cole was invited to Vienna by a co-sponsor of AccApp’ 17, the United Nation’s International Atomic Energy Agency. The conference itself is organized by the Accelerator Applications Division of the American Nuclear Society and the Canadian Nuclear Society.
The conference is in its 26th year, and as chair, Cole has been working with ANS to plan and organize the entire event this summer.
While in Vienna, Cole will discuss the event in detail with the IAEA.
“It’s a collection of 200 experts for five days,” Cole said. “There’s a synergy of talent available and we want to solve very big problems.”
Expected to attend are nuclear energy engineers, physicists and accelerator physicists from around the globe.
Cole explained that diversity is always important at a conference like this, because people from different parts of the world and different genders will look at the same situation or topic in a different and unique way.
Students will also be in attendance for a large poster session and presentations where participants compete for prizes.
“We really want to have students come to demonstrate and show us what they know,” Cole said.
Topics of discussion at the conference this summer will include ways to make nuclear energy safer and cancer detection, which is where Idaho can play another role.
Jon Stoner’s team at the Idaho Accelerator Center has been working on a copper isotope known as Cu-67 since 2010, which could aid cancer research and treatment.
By combining the man-made isotope with cancer medications, cancers such as Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, neuroblastoma, neuroendocrine tumors and colorectal cancer can be treated swiftly.
What started off as a 30-year suspicion has become a topic of discussion on a worldwide scale as Stoner’s work has been coupled with the conference.
Stoner was invited to attend, but has declined.
“I’m sure Phil will represent ISU well,” Stoner said.
Papers submitted for the conference will be available online for all to view.
“Holding these conferences is important because they provide a platform where nuclear physicists, nuclear engineers and accelerator physicists – both experimentalists and theorists – can meet and discuss a range of topics,” Cole said. “It allows people in these three different areas to meet, learn and collaborate.”
