Professor Peter Ratoff

Distinguished Professor, Director of the Cockcroft Institute, Distinguished Professor

My Role

Director of the Cockcroft Institute at SciTech Daresbury

The Cockcroft Institute is an international centre for Accelerator Science and Technology (AST) in the UK. It was proposed in September 2003 and officially opened by the UK Minister for Science, Lord Sainsbury, in September 2006 (although operationally active from April 2004). It is a joint venture between the Universities of Lancaster, Liverpool, Manchester and Strathclyde, and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The Institute is located at the heart of Daresbury Laboratory, adjacent to the Daresbury Innovation Centre, and has established satellite centres in each of the participating universities, including a major experimental facility for the investigation of laser-plasma interactions at the University of Strathclyde (SCAPA). Experimental facilities at Daresbury include the CLARA and VELA electron linear accelerators.

The Institute provides the intellectual focus, educational infrastructure and the essential scientific and technological facilities for accelerator science and technology research and development, which will enable UK scientists and engineers to take a major role in innovating future tools for scientific discoveries and in the conception, design, construction and use of the world’s leading research accelerators for the foreseeable future.

The Institute is named after the Nobel prizewinner Sir John Cockcroft FRS . Born in Todmorden in north west England, and educated in part in Manchester, he is regarded as the pioneer of modern accelerator research.

Cockcroft Phase 4: 2021 - 2025
01/04/2021 → 31/03/2025
Research

Cockcroft Phase 3: Year 2-4
01/04/2018 → 30/09/2021
Research

STFC: LBNE and the Fermilab Liquid Argon Detector
01/10/2014 → 31/03/2018
Research

  • Accelerator Physics
  • Cockcroft Institute
  • Experimental Particle Physics