Inter-University Accelerator Centre (IUAC), New Delhi

Inter-University Accelerator Centre (IUAC) was set-up by the University Grants Commission (UGC) as the first Inter-University Centre (IUC) called Nuclear Science Centre after due approval of the Planning Commission and the Prime Minister in October 1984. Its construction started in December 1986 and completed in time on 19^th December 1990.

About IUAC

Inter-University Accelerator Centre (IUAC), which came up as a green-field project, is spread over 25 acres of land provided by Jawaharlal Nehru University in Qutub Institutional Area of New Delhi. The main aim of the Centre has been to establish a national institute to provide internationally competitive, front-ranking accelerator based research facilities to the researchers from Indian Universities, Research Institutes and other National Laboratories in the fields of Nuclear Science, Materials Science, Radiation Biology, Atomic Physics, Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, etc. The Centre was established, considering the great demand in the Indian research community, to not only provide accelerator based research facilities but also to develop world-class accelerators and research programmes.

Vision

IUAC open new windows to the young minds of our nation and strengthen the pool of scientists by building a brighter future through scientific understanding.

Mission

• In the quest of innovation & capacity building in the areas of accelerator driven research, IUAC is India’s premier laboratory for university researchers
• IUAC’s vision is to provide necessary powerful tools used by scientists to understand the mysteries of matter, energy, space and time by looking at the processes that work at the bigger, smaller and faster scales

Research

• Nuclear Physics
• Material Science
• Radiation Biology
• Accelerator Mass Spectrometry
• Atomic Physics
• Health Physics

Summer Programme for B.Sc. (Physics) Students

Students studying in second/third year B.Sc. (Physics)/Integrated M.Sc. (Physics) in any Indian college/university/institute and securing minimum 60% marks in all examinations can apply for the summer programme. This programme is held in the month of June every year. The aim of the programme is to give a glimpse of research opportunities available in experimental physics and impart hands-on training by scientists to young scholars. Each selected student is expected to carry out a short project in experimental/accelerator physics, guided by a mentor. Upon successful completion of the project, students are required to present their work. A few special lectures and guided tour of the experimental facilities of IUAC is also conducted.

Outreach

M.Sc. Orientation Programme

IUAC conducts M.Sc. Orientation Programme to encourage interested students to supplement their knowledge and to motivate them to continue their career in science. This programme has been envisaged to provide hands-on training in fields associated with accelerator/ion beam based research to selected M.Sc. students by way of short projects. The duration of M.Sc. Orientation Programme is three weeks. It is open throughout the year. Student can apply for this programme based on their convenient time. Applications can be submitted online only. This flexibility allows the students to choose the project period without hampering their main study course.

Ph.D. Programme

IUAC conducts a two semester Ph.D. Programme every year for research students and new scientist trainees of the Centre, which is also open to interested University research scholars. The first semester, during August to December, offers courses in Advanced Physics, Experimental Physics, Computational and Programming Techniques, while the second semester during January to May offers courses in Nuclear Physics, Materials Science and Accelerator Physics. Ph.D. research scholars and interested young faculty members from any University, College or Research Institute pursuing Ph.D. programme can attend these courses.

Facilities Visit

Academic visit programmes are offered for students above the level of Class X from educational institutions such as Schools, Colleges and Universities etc. Furthermore, this programme is extended for technical visitors from educational or research institutes/organizations as well. The programme offers an introductory lecture giving an overview of the facilities and the current research activities at IUAC. Afterwards, a guided tour is arranged through some of the selected facilities. The total duration of the programme is about 3 hours. A group should have a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 45 participants. Smaller groups may be combined with another suitable group of visitors.

Special talks, conducted tours and demonstration of different scientific projects are held on the National Science Day (28^th February) for college students and on the Foundation Day of IUAC (19^th December) for school students.

Training Programmes

IUAC conducts different kinds of programmes to promote the usage of computers in the field of science education. One week training long training programmes are conducted twice every year. Physics and electronics teachers from Colleges/Universities can apply for attending this. Selected candidates are given travel and accommodation support.

Acquaintance Programme

Acquaintance Programme of IUAC is another outreach programme which is conducted in different parts of the country to make the local scientific community aware of the IUAC facilities. The interaction with the IUAC resource persons helps create new potential users for the IUAC facilities. Emphasis is given to hold the programme in those areas from where fewer users exist. The programme is conducted with active participation from a local University/College with one of the existing users as the nodal person.

Teaching Lab Activities

As a part of IUAC's outreach programme, a project was started, named PHOENIX (Physics with Home-made Equipment and Innovative Experiments), with two major objectives:

• Developing a computer interfaced device capable of performing the role of a number of laboratory equipments
• Training college/university teachers in its usage and development of new experiments

The device developed under this project provided a framework to design sophisticated science experiments without getting into the details of electronics or computer programming. It provided a set of ready-made experiments and also enabled teachers to design new experiments with improved precision, reliability and accuracy. Several revisions were done to the initial design over the years. The latest device is named ExpEYES (Experiments for Young Engineers and Scientists). The device is affordable even to an individual so that it enables the student to perform experiments outside the laboratory too. Introducing scientific computation using Python programming language also has been a part of this project. Over the years, it has been inducted into the syllabus of several Universities and a large number of institutions are using it as test equipment and for doing science and engineering projects.

Source: Inter-University Accelerator Centre (IUAC), New Delhi