About us

The Accelerator Science and Technology Centre (ASTeC) was created by CCLRC in 2001 as a Centre of Excellence for study of the production, acceleration and delivery of charged particle beams. It now carries out R&D programmes in support of STFC strategic programme objectives.

Charged particle accelerators are at the heart of numerous frontier projects in science and technology, including large scale international research facilities for particle and nuclear physics and major UK centres such as synchrotron sources for neutrons and photons. Alternative but much smaller solutions apply to medical and industrial applications. Technologies associated with all modern applications of charged particle beams continue to evolve and demand associated R&D programmes to be pursued.

Staff from ASTeC have expertise in all aspects from design through construction to commissioning. In addition to specifically selected accelerator projects we are engaged in an ongoing programme of world class research and development studies.

ASTeC is a partner in the Cockcroft Institute (link opens in a new window), together with the universities of Lancaster (link opens in a new window), Liverpool (link opens in a new window) and Manchester (link opens in a new window). We also have strong collaborative links with the John Adams Institute (link opens in a new window), many other universities and with overseas institutions.

People are our most important asset and we have some 50-60 highly skilled professional staff. With our longstanding experience, coupled with a depth of understanding of the latest techniques in accelerator science and technology, our team makes significant contributions to the exploitation of the latest generation of accelerators and their particle beams. Our expertise is also applied to next generation solutions delivering scientific output that can change the world through its applications.

ASTeC staff are based at both the Daresbury and Rutherford Appleton Laboratories. The ASTeC Director is Susan Smith.

The ASTeC team record includes

• Detailed design of Diamond, the UK's advanced 3rd generation light source on the Harwell campus
  
  
• Conceptual studies of 4th generation light sources, including the 4GLS project (based on energy recovery technology) and NLS, a state-of-art high performance superconducting linac based proposal
  
  
• Concept, construction and commissioning of ALICE, an accelerator test facility at Daresbury based around Europe's first operational energy recovery system
  
  
• Design and build of EMMA, a revolutionary FFAG accelerator under commissioning at Daresbury
  
  
• Leading roles in the two latest international studies into future particle physics accelerators: an electron linear collider and a neutrino factory
  
  
• Preliminary studies on next generation spallation neutron source options

Further information can be found on the Accelerator Strategy Board (link opens in a new window), STFC Corporate Strategy (link opens in a new window) and Science and Technology Strategy (link opens in a new window).