September 14-19, 2009 Athens Greece NMDB Training Course "Cosmic rays and neutron monitors: A training course in science and applications"

The NMDB consortium organized a training course on Cosmic Rays & Neutron Monitors entitled: 'Cosmic Rays and Neutron Monitors - a training course in science and applications', from September 14 to 19, 2009. The training course was hosted by the Physics Department of the National & Kapodistrain University of Athens, at Athens, Greece. This course was designed for students, post docs, researchers and engineers interested by a broad range of applications of cosmic rays, from astrophysics of energetic particles to their impact on the Earth.

• A total of 55 participants from 16 countries attended the training course.

• The scientific program included high quality lectures by distinguished scientists. The total number of the lectures was 14. Questions on every lecture were distributed to the audience and the answers were evaluated by the lectures.

• The laboratory exercises was performed in parallel sessions. All participants attended the lab courses and got the chance to gain hands on experience on cosmic rays and its applications.

• Students attended the course also had the opportunity to present their research. Two end-of-afternoon sessions was scheduled for short oral presentations (on Monday and Tuesday), and posters was shown during the whole course. The total student contribution was 8 oral and 11 poster presentations.

• A public talk by the distinguished Greek Academician: S. M. Krimigis was performed at the Central Building of the National & Kapodistrin University of Athens. Find a printable version of the formal invitation here (pdf / 141.28 kB)

• A questionnaire was distributed to all attendees of the training course, urging them to evaluate the structure, the organization, the functionality and performance of the NMDB training course, providing the NMDB consortium with very useful information.

• A password protected website containing all the presentations of the Training Course has been launched under the address: http://tc.nmdb.eu

• The social program of the Training Course included:

• A book including all information on NMDB Training Course has been produced and can be found here

The feedback that was received by the attendants of the NMDB Training Course was very promising, and this effort can be characterized as a successful one. It was actually proposed that there must be a continuation of such courses due to the fact that there is a lack of courses focusing on Cosmic Rays & Neutron Monitors despite the fact that up today those have served both science and applications in such an excellent way.

The Local Organizing Committee of the Training Course would like to acknowledge the significant funding / support of the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Dr. Krimigis for his acceptance to provide a Public Talk, the staff of the Physics Department of the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, the Scientific Organizing Committee for valuable input throughout the preparations of the course and the funding of EC that made it all possible.

• More online info on NMDB Training Course can be found here