FRIB hosts international linear accelerator conference

FRIB hosted the 28th Linear Accelerator Conference (LINAC 16) from 25-30 September at Michigan State University. The conference is held biennially and is the largest international conference dedicated to linear accelerators. 

The last conference (LINAC 14) was hosted by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and took place in Geneva, Switzerland, and LINAC 12 was held in Tel-Aviv, Israel.

FRIB hosted this year’s conference partly because FRIB is under construction at the cutting edge of the linac technology. Accordingly, a tour of FRIB was one of the main conference events. 

LINAC is unique because all of the oral presentations are plenary and the participants are encouraged to stay in the same hotel in order to further continue technical discussions. Four-hundred and twenty delegates attended the conference from seventeen countries. In particular, LINAC 16 supported a significant number of students, who will be soon major players in the LINAC community. The first day was dedicated to the student poster session, and more than forty students presented their posters.

In total, 454 conference abstracts were submitted, and 295 papers. 

The next conference (LINAC 18) will be hosted by the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) in Beijing, China.