September 11, 2006

Physicist Abraham Seiden honored at physics meeting

By Tim Stephens

An international physics meeting being held this week in Carmel starts off with a special workshop in honor of Abraham Seiden, professor of physics and director of the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics (SCIPP) at UCSC.

The special session, dubbed "Abe Fest," was organized to celebrate Seiden's 60th birthday. It takes place on the first day of the Sixth International Symposium on the Development and Application of Semiconductor Tracking Detectors (STD6), which runs from September 11 to 15.

The "Abe Fest" workshop will focus on tracking systems used in particle accelerators and other instruments to study the physics of subatomic particles. SCIPP is a leading center for the development of such tracking systems and is involved in several international physics projects.

The STD6 symposium brings together experts in the design, processing, and applications of semiconductor tracking detectors for discussions of past experiences, lessons learned, and new ideas that are still in the early stages of development. The symposium is known informally as the "Hiroshima" symposium because the first meetings were held in Hiroshima, Japan. The 2006 symposium is the first to be held in the United States.