Stan Schriber (center) with student poster prize recipients (from left): Satomi Shiraishi, Evelyn Meier, Anna Grassellino, and Roark Marsh.
On May 4th, 2009, TRIUMF and the city of Vancouver welcomed over 1300 accelerator scientists, engineers, students, and exhibitors from around the world who gathered to participate in the 2009 Particle Accelerator Conference (PAC09). PAC09-the 23rd Particle Accelerator Conference-was hosted by TRIUMF, Canada's national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics, and jointly sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the Nuclear and Plasma Science Society (NPSS-IEEE), and the American Physical Society-Division of Physics of Beams (APS-DPB). The scientific program for the week, whose organization was led by TRIUMF's Shane Koscielniak, included invited speakers, contributed orals, poster sessions, industrial exhibits, satellite meetings, and an exciting Student Program. When asked about his experience at the conference Shane explained "I don't like clichés and buzz words, but this conference was so inspiring that you can't help but use them: energy and synergy is what this meeting was all about. You bring enthusiastic and talented individuals together for the space of a week, and what you get is a minor miracle of intensive cooperation and productivity beyond what any of them is capable of alone." PAC09 attracted 1309 participants, 74 industrial exhibits, 147 students, 197 orals, 1625 posters, and 23 satellite meetings, but according to Shane, "What the statistics cannot capture was the vitality of the meeting: the standing-room-only-oral sessions, the throng of enthusiastic and energetic poster sessions, the myriad conversations." Fostering renewed vitality within the field at the conference is the rapidly expanding and popular student program, through which students are given the opportunity to showcase their research during the special Sunday afternoon Student Poster Session. The posters are judged by international leaders in the field of accelerator science and students who compellingly describe and defend their work are eligible for poster prizes. This year, Anna Grassellino (TRIUMF) and Roark Marsh (MIT) received first prizes for their posters; and Evelyn Meier (Australian Synchrotron Light Source) and Satomi Shiraishi (Fermilab) received second prizes for their work. Students also had the opportunity to be more actively involved in the conference by assisting chairpersons with time keeping during plenary and oral sessions, working with the conference secretariat, and acting as poster police during the daily poster sessions. The conference was a resounding success for particle-accelerator science and technology, with many talks and presentations highlighting the key role of particle accelerators in every frontier, be it high-energy physics, astrophysics, material science, or nuclear medicine. It goes without saying that the conference would not have been a success without the tireless efforts of countless people and TRIUMF would like to recognize the hard work of all those involved: from the various organizing committees, and editorial and proceedings teams, to the chairmen, delegates, and speakers, and the countless volunteers who helped behind the scenes. A special thanks to Paul Schmor, Conference Chairman, Yuri Bylinski, Local Organizing Committee Chair, Shane Koscielniak, Scientific Program Committee Chair, Sandi Miller, Conference Coordinator, Martin Comyn, Proceedings Editor, and Shirley Reeve, Conference Treasurer, for their leadership, hard work, and dedication to making this conference a success. Thank you to the world for coming to Vancouver; we hope to see you again in 2010 for the Olympics!
-- Meghan Magee, Communications Assistant