PASC WINTER SCHOOL SESIMBRA - PORTUGAL, 17 -- 19 December 2008

 

Motivation

This School is organized by PASC and is intended to provide an introduction to Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology. Therefore, the main courses of the School are at the basic level, aimed at students of the 3rd Bologna cycle and Post-docs. We also encourage students of the 2nd Bologna cycle, who have already attended introductory courses in these fields, to come to the school.

PASC, itself, is an initiative of the three well known Portuguese research centres in these areas: Centro de Física Teórica de Partículas (CFTP), Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física de Partículas (LIP) and Centro Multidisciplinar de Astrofísica (CENTRA)

With the PASC initiative, LIP, CFTP and CENTRA have joined efforts in order to increase the offer of courses and post-graduate studies of Physics Engineering in Particle, Astrophysics and Cosmology, at the level of Master of Science (2nd Bologna cycle) and Ph.D. (3rd Bolongna cycle). CENTRA, LIP and CFTP, have intense theoretical and experimental research activity in Astrophysics, Cosmology and Particle Physics, including instrumentation. There is a strict relationship between these areas of research. Indeed, some of the most important questions in Cosmology (for example, the question of dark matter and dark energy, as well as inflation) find their answers in Particle Physics, in addition, data coming from Astrophysics impose important restrictions on models in Particle Physics. PASC is going to intensify the interaction of the three centers. PASC has about one hunderd researchers with PhD. The three centers maintain also intense international collaboration with the world's leading scientific institutions in these areas, such as CERN (European Laboratory in Particle Physics) and ESO (European Southern Observatory), as well as with a great number of European, American and Japanese universities, participating also in important Networks financed by the European Union.