Frank Linde new leader European astroparticle physics
In a meeting held on 9 January 2015 in Paris, the General Assembly of the Astroparticle Physics European Consortium APPEC elected Dutch physicist professor Frank Linde (Nikhef/University of Amsterdam) as its new chair. APPEC is a consortium of 14 European research organisations that have joined forces for the coordination and funding of the rapidly growing discipline of Astroparticle physics. The German Thomas Berghöfer was re-elected as secretary-general. Both appointments are for a period of two years.
APPEC has an ambitious roadmap for the realisation of the next generation of large research facilities to facilitate research in the rapidly growing transition area between physics and astronomy. A few examples are detectors for the direct detection of gravitational waves, experiments (such as KM3NeT) to determine the properties of neutrinos and facilities for research into dark matter and dark energy.
Linde recently retired as the director of Nikhef after serving in that position for ten years. In an initial reaction to his appointment at APPEC he said: "Astroparticle physics is about incredibly challenging and fundamental scientific questions. It might well be the case that in the coming years we will make very exciting discoveries. A top priority for me will be to ensure that the plans for a number of large research facilities are further developed and funded, especially those from multimessenger studies. Furthermore it would be good to strengthen the links with CERN."
The full APPEC press release can be read here
Information
For further information please contact the Communication Department of Nikhef, +31 20 592 5075 of +31 20 592 2075.
Frank Linde spoke at Lowlands 2014 and his talk included Astroparticle physics.