Gieljan de Vries

Gieljan de Vries

science writer

Background article

Nikhef magazine DIMENSIES #3, 2020

The Swiss pocket knife of particle physics

After twenty years as a spin-off from CERN, the flexible particle camera Medipix is returning to CERN where it once began. Change the particle-sensitive material of this smart detector and you can measure almost any kind of radiation and light you want with it. That comes in handy in particle physics and far beyond, it turns out at a celebratory anniversary symposium.

For this article, I talk to Medipix specialists from the very beginning Jan Visser and Martin van Beuzekom, who shows me around in Nikhef's cleanroom Silicon Alley; still part of the production of Medipix cameras passes Nikhef's detector specialists, he tells me enthusiastically. All this and more in DIMENSIONS issue 3.