A Bright Future for Dark Matter
Particle physicist and Research Director at NCSR “Demokritos”, Dr. George Fanourakis, talks about the scientific revolution that has improved our understanding of the Universe, during the last 15 years, as we try to decipher the mystery concerning dark matter and dark energy, and describes the important part the NCSR scientific team plays in the CAST experiment at CERN. He describes the special equipment they’ve developed to detect axions converted to x-rays, which are easier to study and talks about the new and upgraded detectors, like the MicroMegas. Finally, he gives a preview on the European Researchers’ Night 2015 program, where researchers and scientists from five research centers (at least in Attica) will show in a visitor-friendly way, what they are doing in their labs and how the results of their work apply to our daily life. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.
George Fanourakis
Research Director at the Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics, NCSR Demokritos
George K. Fanourakis obtained his PhD in the field of Particle Physics in 1980 at the University of Athens, Greece, after completing his thesis work, on Antineutrino Interactions on Protons, at the Nuclear Research Center (now National Center for Science Research) "Demokritos", in Athens, Greece and at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, USA. He has contributed to several Particle Physics experiments at national or international laboratories including Brookhaven, Fermilab and CERN. He has a wide experience in the development and operation of Particle detectors, in Data Acquisition and Monitoring techniques and in Data Analysis. He is currently participating in the axion dark matter search experiment CAST at CERN. He has co-authored more than 270 papers in refereed scientific journals and many more in conference proceedings. He is the vice director of INPP since 2009 and the coordinator of Educational activities of “Demokritos” since 2013.
Specialties:
Researchers’ Night is held for one night in several hundred cities all over Europe and beyond. The purpose of is to convey to the general public the key ideas that Research is a necessary ingredient for progress, the Researchers are an integral part of the community and their profession is both fun, challenging, interesting and worth pursuing. On September 25th 2015 Researcher's Night will be held at the Hellenic Cosmos venue, in Athens. Tech Talks Central interviewed 20 Scientists & Researchers from 5 research centres that are presenting their work during Researchers' Night.