Professor Gert Aarts, of Swansea University’s Department of Physics in the College of Science, has been invited to join the Joint Scientific Council of FAIR/GSI, the international accelerator facility based in Darmstadt, Germany.

FAIR, the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research, and GSI, the Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, investigate the fundamental structure of matter and explore exotic forms of it, by colliding ions, charged particles consisting of many protons, as well as anti-protons.

GSI, founded in 1969, is renowned for discovering new heavy elements, such bohrium, as well as developing medical applications for ion beams. FAIR is currently under construction and will explore both fundamental science and a variety of applications.

Professor Aarts said: “I feel very honoured to have been asked to join the Scientific Council. GSI and FAIR are leading international facilities in heavy-ion research, which in the near future will reveal further insight into the dynamics of protons, quarks and gluons. My own theoretical work on this is partly driven by the experimental progress and in the Swansea Lattice group we investigate strongly interacting matter using high-performance computing, precisely to complement the experimental programmes. Hence it will be fascinating to get a close look at the developments and be able to advice on scientific matters.”