ICHEP 2002 Amsterdam

Ever since its start in Rochester (USA) 51 years ago, this biennial conference has played a unique role for high-energy physics. It has been the central occasion where the status of the field is assessed, important new results are announced and future directions are discussed. The ICHEP meetings typically attract more than 1000 physicists from all over the world. A large number of the attendees is in charge of sophisticated technological projects at leading high-energy laboratories around the world, such as CERN (Geneva), Fermi Lab (Chigaco), DESY (Hamburg), KEK (Tokyo) and SLAC (Stanford). Characteristic features of these projects are the scale, often involving many hundreds of physicists, and the advanced cutting-edge techniques that are being used or are foreseen to be used. Examples are the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN and the recently proposed Tera-Electronvolt Superconducting Linear Accelerator (TESLA) project in Hamburg.

Experimental high energy physics is research at the frontier of technology. In order to study the particles and forces that make up the atom, we collide particles at the highest energies and rates we can achieve, and detect the products of those collisions with sensitive and precise detectors. In doing so, we need the latest technology in diverse areas like vacuum systems, photon detectors, power supplies, high voltage control, superconductivity, magnets, silicon devices, integrated circuits, high speed electronics, networking and computing. We cooperate with industry to find and develop the technology we need, to our mutual benefits. Taking part in our research has proven to be an excellent education for students and PhD-students, and many continue their career in business and industry after earning their degree. Spin-Off of our research finds its way to the whole world. The World Wide Web was developed at CERN, and we are working hard on hits next phase: the GRID.

Accelerators are now common and important tools in hospitals for body scanning and cancer treatment; our detector technology is now used in PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scans and in X-ray imaging. Our field is in constant movement. We are currently building the LHC at CERN, but we are actively researching the technology needed for the next generation of facilities that have been proposed. Part of our conference will be devoted to discussions on these new facilities. Around 1000 participants from more than 45 countries will attend this conference. While the conference was always hosted by Rochester (USA) in the beginning, its location is changing every two years. In 2002 the conference will be hosted by the Netherlands for the first time. In recent years the ICHEP meetings took place in Osaka (2000) Vancouver (1998) Warswaw (1996).
Here is a list of all previous ICHEP conferences.