Switzerland’s involvement in ASEPS
Family name:
First name:
Organisation:
Rubbia; Tran; Mesot; Zuo Gillet;
André; Minh Quang; Jöel; Lan
Institute of Particle Physics ETH Zurich; Plasma Physics Research Centre EPFL; Paul
Sherrer Institute; swissnex Shanghai
Research field:
Particle and astroparticle physics; Plasma Physics; multi-disciplinary research and large
scale facilities; Sino-Swiss science and technology cooperation and promotion of Swiss
S&T in China
Working group:
Email:
rubbia@phys.ethz.ch; minhquang.tran@epfl.ch; joel.mesot@psi.ch;
lan.zuogillet@swissnexshanghai.org
Short presentation of the organisations
Institute of Particle Physics, ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – Zurich)
http://www.ipp.phys.ethz.ch/
About the Institute
The Institute for Particle Physics (IPP) belongs to the Physics Department of the ETH Zürich. It is
subdivided into three laboratories
 Laboratory for High Energy Physics
 Laboratory for Particle Physics
 Ion Beam Physics
Current research areas
 Highest energy collisions in the Teravolt scale at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.
 Study of neutrino properties within the T2K experiment at the Japanese Proton Accelerator Research
Complex (JPARC near Tokyo)
 Large liquid Argon detectors, studies on the implementation of very massive underground neutrino
detectors, for low-energy neutrino astronomy, for next generation long baseline neutrino oscillations,
and for the search for proton decays.
Plasma Physics Research Centre (CRPP), EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – Lausanne)
http://crpp.epfl.ch/
About the Centre
CRPP is a National Competence Centre in the field of Plasma Physics, responsible for all scientific work on
controlled fusion in Switzerland. In addition to plasma physics teaching, its missions are primarily scientific
research in the field of controlled fusion within the framework of the EURATOM-Swiss Confederation
Association and the development of its expertise as well as technology transfer in the field of materials research.
CRPP has about 160 staff, 127 on the EPFL site and the rest at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI).
Current research areas
 Foundamental Plasma Physics
 Tokamak Physics
 Plasma Theory
 Gyrontron development
 Fusion Technology
 Plasma Processing
Paul Sherrer Institute http://www.psi.ch/index_e.shtml
About the Institute
The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) is a multi-disciplinary research institute which belongs to the Swiss ETH
domain covering also the ETH Zurich and EPFL. PSI is a User Laboratory and runs several particle
accelerators. The 590MeV cyclotron, the 2mA proton beam, the synchrotron light source with a 2.4GeV
electron storage ring are part of the state of the art of large-scale facilities. It is the largest Swiss national
research institute with about 1,300 members of staff.
Current research areas:
 physics of condensed matter and materials sciences
 structural biology
 radiochemistry, radiopharmacy and proton radiation therapy
 elementary particle physics
 nuclear and non-nuclear energy research, and energy-related ecology
swissnex Shanghai www.swissnexshanghai.org
About the organization
Swissnex Shanghai is an initiative of the Swiss State Secretariat for Education and Research of the Ministry of
Home Affairs and the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The goal is to fully exploit the potential of cooperation
between Switzerland and China in the fields of higher education, research, technology, innovation and culture,
and to further promote Switzerland as one of the leading countries in those domains. swissnex Shanghai was
established in 2007, officially opened in 2008 and became fully operational from then on with 8 experienced
stuff members to achieve this goal in the greater China area.
Activities
 Initiate, facilitate or coordinate bilateral or multilateral S&T cooperation projects. Management of
governmental framework Sino-Swiss S&T Cooperation Program in China
 Liaise with Chinese S&T authorities and Chinese Sciences communities
 Promote of Swiss S&T and innovation capabilities by organizing events, workshops, road shows, etc.
 Build up S&T Information system: reports on Chinese S&T systems, database of Chinese top research
universities, network of Chinese experts affiliated to Switzerland
 Match interested parties in China and in Switzerland for bilateral academic or technology transfer
projects.
Interest(s) in ASEPS:
Institute of Particle Physics, ETH Zurich
Frontier research in particle and astroparticle physics requires very large research infrastructures that go beyond
the capabilities of a single nation or a single continent. Our interest and largest expectations from the workshop
is therefore to discuss the scientific priorities and possible shared contributions to large-scale infrastructures in
the field of particle physics and astrophysics. We expect that the current round of experiments will define the
next major steps in these fields and given the size of the envisioned research infrastructure, a collaboration
between Asia and Europe would be extremely beneficial for all partners involved.
Plasma Physics Research Centre (CRPP), EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – Lausanne)
At ASEPS, apart from discussing the global challenges in Physics, participants could also exchange the view on
some fundamental questions such as
 What we have learnt from the past?
 What are the challenges in the future where collaboration is needed
 What do we do with education of the very vast number of people in Asia?
Paul Sherre Institute
PSI has already excellent collaborations with various Asian countries. Japan, China, Taiwan in these fields. The
expectations of PSI are to reinforce future collaborations, in particular around the development of our largescale facilities. Potential for collaborations between PSI and Asian countries will be in the following areas:
 Large scale facilities: Synchrotron, neutrons, muons and proton accelerators.
 Particle physics
 Energy research
 Proton therapy
swissnex Shanghai
ASEPS offers the opportunity of dialogue and exchange between scientists of different nations. It will be enable
swissnex Shanghai to access the interest and potential of setting up multi-lateral collaboration. Starting from this
example, swissnex will be able to further explore the different forms of collaboration with the involvement of
governmental agencies as well as private sectors. swissnex Shanghai will also be able to leverage on the alliance
of different Swiss partners at ASEPS to further establish scientific network. With its experience of coordination
of the Sino Swiss Science and Technology Cooperation Program, swissnex Shanghai could effectively join the
effort of ASEPS to design funding instruments to intensify scientific contacts among senior as well as young
scientists.
Expected ASEPS outcomes:
Institute of Particle Physics, ETH Zurich
 Development of a common Asia-Europe “roadmap” for large research infrastructures for fundamental
science, in particular in the fields of particle and astroparticle physics
 Support of exchanges between Asia and Europe
Plasma Physics Research Centre, EPFL
 Further collaboration in the education of Physics
Paul Sherre Institute
Reinforce the future collaborations in the field of Large scale facilities, Particle physics, Energy research and
Proton therapy, in particular around the development of our large scale facilities.
swissnex Shanghai
 New contacts between Asia and Europe both on a institutional and a personal level and thus facilitate
new collaborations
 Definition of the forms of multilateral collaboration that could be inspired for similar initiatives in
other areas of S&T.
 Identification of potential sources of funding
 Planning of futures steps and definition of roles and responsibilities of each partner
 Involvement of junior Scientists in academic exchanges and cooperation in Physics
Additional Remarks
Switzerland has a long tradition of advanced researches in Physics and is one of the countries with the state of
art facilities and top level research teams in this area. It has long tradition of cooperation with other countries in
this field. The Swiss State Secretary for Education and Research strongly encourages and supports Swiss
research institutes to take active part in this new initiative of Asia-Europe multilateral cooperation. In its role of
initiator, facilitator and coordinator for international S&T exchange, swissnex Shanghai will try to follow
closely the future development of the summit and to provide timely support whenever necessary.
ASEPS Participant Presentation