J Charles Tobin Thangaraj

J Charles Tobin Thangaraj is the Illinois Accelerator Research Center (IARC) science and technology manager.

An important part of the new vision for IARC at Fermilab is increasing regional engagement – capturing activities that bring regional institutions together to exchange information and resources and increase our collective impact. As an early step toward this new vision, Fermilab, along with University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory, hosted an online workshop on Nov. 9 focusing on strategic opportunities to collaborate on artificial intelligence research: “Partnering to Advance AI Research & Development.”

For the first time, a team at Fermilab has cooled and operated a superconducting radio-frequency cavity — a crucial component of superconducting particle accelerators — using cryogenic refrigerators, breaking the tradition of cooling cavities by immersing them in a bath of liquid helium. The demonstration is a major breakthrough in the effort to develop lean, compact accelerators for medicine, the environment and industry.