INFN establishes a new centre in Trento
On 15 January 2013 the University of Trento opened the Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Application [TIFPA]. The TIFPA was created through the collaboration of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics [INFN], the University of Trento, Fondazione Bruno Kessler [FBK] and the Provincial Agency for Proton Therapy Trento [ATreP].
The new centre conducts research in basic physics and in innovation and technology transfer, taking advantage of infrastructure, skills and human resources existing in the participating institutions. The Centre will benefit from the infrastructure of the Centre for Materials and Microsystems and the European Centre for Theoretical Physics. The new machine for medical proton therapy, which is expected to be operational late 2013 will also contribute to the research at the TIFPA.
“The creation of TIFPA”, said the Secretary-General of the FBK, Andrea Simoni, “is the natural consequence of an important and skilled collaboration between INFN and FBK; collaboration started in the 90s with the development of microstrip detectors, that were designed by the INFN and FBK and produced for important experiments at CERN (AMS and ALICE). Since then, the link between INFN and FBK has gradually strengthened through projects and strategies based on both micro-electromechanical systems technologies that supercomputing.”
Interesting opportunities, especially for young researchers from the Department of Physics, are expected from the interaction between the University of Trento and the INFN Trento. The TIFPA may lead to other initiatives in Italy encouraging the synergy of different subjects and qualified skills.
