Conference to discuss latest advances in brain tumours by non-surgical means, space science

The latest advances in the treatment of brain tumours by non-surgical means, space science and non-fossil fuel energy generation, are among the topics being discussed by over 500 international scientists at Queen's University this week.

The physicists, from Europe, the USA, China, Japan, Australia, Canada, Argentina, Brazil and Israel, are attending a week-long conference to discuss the latest developments in atomic and molecular and laser physics.  The 27th International Conference on Photonic, Electronic and Atomic Collisions (ICPEAC) is one of the largest and most prestigious Physics Conferences in the world.

Among the keynote speakers are:

• Professor Yasunori Yamazaki, a world leader in studies of antimatter at the CERN antiproton facility where cold anti-hydrogen has been successfully formed and trapped. 
• Dr Walter Meissl (Atomic Physics Laboratory, RIKEN, Japan), an experimental physicist currently working in Japan investigating radiation damage to DNA with importance applications in future Cancer Therapy.
• Professor Ara Chutjian (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California), a leading scientist involved in the NASA space science programme. 
• Dr Chris Calvert, Queen's University Belfast, who is working on a new technique using state of the art ultrafast laser flashes to study bio-molecules such as components of DNA, important for future cancer therapies.

The internationally-acclaimed scientific meeting is taking place in the UK for only the third time since its establishment in New York in 1958.  The selection of Queen's as a venue acknowledges the international profile of the University's School of Mathematics and Physics in atomic physics.