Prof. Herman ten Kate, extraordinary Professor for Industrial Application of Superconductivity at the University of Twente (research group 'Energy, Materials and Systems") and project leader of the ATLAS Magnet System at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva receives the IEEE Award for his numerous contributions to the research and development of superconducting magnets with high magnetic field for high-energy physics accelerators and detectors.
The IEEE Award for sustained and significant contributions to the field of applied superconductivity for large-scale applications has, over the past 14 years since it was established, been awarded to 17 people. Within the international world of superconductivity, this award is considered the most important recognition for significant contributions to this field.
Ten Kate: "I am much honored to receive this award, put forward by my colleagues at home and abroad. In this way, my work gets recognition. This applies to the entire team at Twente and CERN because, without them, it would not be possible to build and maintain such an international position. I am, in particular, very happy that the contribution to education has been mentioned, for it is the educating of young people, seeing their development and their careers that I find so special, especially because many have found excellent jobs in our field of superconductivity".
Ten Kate is particularly praised for his technical leadership and management skills in the construction and commissioning of the ATLAS detector magnet at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The award will be given to Ten Kate on 15 July 2013, during the opening of the 23rd International Conference on Magnet Technology to be held in Boston, MA. The award consists of an engraved plaque, an honorarium of $5,000 and a medallion with inscription of niobium, the metal that is most often used in applications of superconductors.
In the text accompanying the award, Ten Kate is praised further for his contributions to applied superconductivity. In particular, his pioneering work in the development and construction of the first accelerator dipole magnet using Nb3Sn superconductor that achieved a record magnetic field well above 11 tesla magnetic field, a major step forward in the technology. In addition, his technical leadership and management qualities are mentioned in the design, construction and commissioning of the ATLAS Superconducting Magnet System of the LHC at CERN. He is also honored for the way he has trained many students, young engineers and scientists in the field of technical superconductors and their application in magnet systems.
About Ten Kate
Ten Kate earned his undergraduate degree in 1976 at UT and, in 1980, his Master's degree in Applied Physics. In 1985, he obtained his doctorate with a thesis on "Superconducting rectifiers”. In 1985, he became assistant professor at the University of Twente in the Applied Physics department and, from 1991 to 1996, he headed the High Current Superconductivity Group within the then Chair of Low Temperatures (now the chair for Energy, Materials and Systems). In 1997, Ten Kate was appointed endowed Professor for Industrial Application of Superconductivity. In 1996 he was invited to join CERN to lead the realization of the ATLAS Magnet System, the largest superconducting magnet ever built for a particle detector and which played a crucial role in the recent discovery of the Higgs particle. Ten Kate himself expects to go on for many more years with the training and supervision of undergraduates and graduate students and, furthermore, to promote the wonderful cooperation between the University of Twente and technical institutes for applied physics research, like CERN.
More information
Dr. Martin Nisenoff
Vice President, Awards and Recognition
IEEE Council on Superconductivity
1201 Yale Place Suite #1004
Minneapolis MN 55403-1958 USA
E-mail: m.nisenoff@ieee.org
+1 612 333 0338
