The Kairological Qabalah by Dr Nicolas Laos

Rediscovering Western Esotericism within Philosophy, Science and the Revolutionary Secrets of Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism and the Illuminati.

By: Dr Nicolas Laos 

As an original and in-depth look at man’s existential problems and challenges, The Kairological Qabalah – Rediscovering Western Esotericism, contains an inspiring plan for the creation of a New Western Renaissance.
This book brings Western Esotericism under careful scrutiny and then re-interprets it for our modern age. From this new position, Dr Laos articulates a new esoteric system, The Kairological Qabalah, which is based upon the “opportune moment” of Kairos, where Man is the architect and manager of his own fate.

Endorsements

“Dr Nicolas Laos is an outstanding policy-analysis scholar. His analytical mind assists the reader to comprehend the meaning of the Greek word “esotericism” as well as the Greek concept of “Kairos” that focuses on the dynamic continuity between the reality of the world and the reality of consciousness.”
– Dr John M. Nomikos, Director, Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS) and Chairman, Mediterranean Council for Intelligence Studies
“Nicolas Laos offers a rational perspective about Western esotericism. Establishing connections between the Greek concept of Kairos (the right or opportune moment) and a redefined Qabalah (as an ecumenical esoteric system of correspondences and symbols), he opens new possibilities of dialogue between ancient symbolism and advanced sciences.”
– Metropolitan Daniel (de Jesús Ruiz Flores) of Mexico and All Latin America (Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Mexico)
“The volume at hand is a well-thought out, methodical and coherent professional study. In an orderly manner, this book delineates the profound meaning of the Greek word ‘esotericism’. To do eloquently so, Dr Laos travels carefully through history, cultures and civilizations…the author offers a reflective portrait about the inner confrontations, the spirituality and the multi-survival apprehension issues that humanity faces today.”
– Dr Elias D. Kallioras, Former Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly of Black Sea Economic Co-operation (PABSEC) 

Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Introduction
Acknowledgements
Part One: The Emergence and Development of Western Esotericism
Chapter 1: Esotericism as an Object of Historical Research
Chapter 2: The Noachites and the Spiritual Horizon of Western Esotericism
Chapter 3: The Creation of the Japhethite Ecumene and the Foundations of Western Esotericism
Part Two: The Kairological Qabalah: The Secret Mysteries of Nature and Science and the Mastering of Reality
Chapter 4: Kairos and Qabalah
Chapter 5: The Kairological Left-Hand Pillar
Chapter 6: The Kairological Right-Hand Pillar
Chapter 7: The Kairological Middle Pillar
Chapter 8: The Incarnate Logos and the Esoteric Significance of the Number Thirty-Three
Part Three: Esoteric Fraternities, Morality and Politics from the Perspective of the Kairological Qabalah
Chapter 9: The Rituals and Teachings of Western Esoteric Fraternities
Chapter 10: Western Esotericism and Moral Philosophy
Chapter 11: The Political Dimension of Western Esotericism and the Kairological Qabalah
Bibliography
Index
Hardcover / 266 pages / 140mm x 216mm
ISBN: 978-1-907347-09-2
Price £24.99 / $39.99 BUY NOW ON AMAZON  
http://www.whitecranepublishing.com/books/the-kairological-qabalah/

 

 

Oppose the unconditional grant of US Navy Frigates to Turkey

On December 11, 2012 House Resolution 6649 was introduced and referred to the House Foreign Affairs committee. It’s dubbed the Naval Vessel Transfer Act of 2012 and, among other provisions, calls for the transfer by grant (gift) of two guided missile frigates from the US Navy to the government of Turkey. The Frigates are the USS Halyburton and the USS Thach.

The unconditional grant of these two military frigates to Turkey should trouble U.S. citizens for the following reasons:

·       Turkey has used its military forces to increase tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean by intimidating Cyprus, Israel and American-owned Noble Energy as they explore for LNG deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean.

·       It is still stationing troops in occupied Cyprus and occupying the northern part of the sovereign Republic of Cyprus, using American-made military equipment against numerous UN resolutions and several calls for withdrawal of its troops and ending of the occupation.

·       It is using vessels to frequently violate the internationally recognized territorial waters of Greece & Cyprus, who are both US allies in the region.

US lawmakers might be inclined to “donate” the two vessels to Turkey because HR 6649 mandates that these ships be repaired in a US shipyard at the expense of the government of Turkey and because of the hot situation in Syria. But as responsible US citizens however, we should be concerned about the use of this military equipment.

We oppose this resolution. We feel it is irresponsible for the US to make such a grant transfer unless Turkey first makes concrete steps to show good faith in withdrawing its troops from Cyprus and stops using its military to “bully” its neighbors.

AMERICAN HELLENIC COUNCIL OF CALIFORNIA

NASA Selects Engineering Fabrication Services Contract

HOUSTON -- NASA has selected Sierra Lobo Inc. of Fremont, Ohio, to perform engineering fabrication services at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

This cost-plus-award-fee contract with indefinite-delivery-indefinite-quantity delivery orders has a potential value of $98.15 million, if NASA exercises the one two-year option. The three-year base period of the contract begins Feb. 1, 2013.

The fabrication services range from providing rapid turnaround of simple parts and modifications to the development of new products, prototypes and actual hardware for spaceflight. Hardware produced can range in size and complexity from small hand tools for astronauts to entire crew systems.
(SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lift off from Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., Credit: NASA/Tony Gray and Kevin O’Connell)

NASA'S Space Launch System Core Stage Passes Major Milestone, Ready to Start Construction

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- The team designing America's new flagship rocket has completed successfully a major technical review of the vehicle's core stage. NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) will take the agency's Orion spacecraft and other payloads beyond low-Earth orbit, providing a new capability for human exploration.

The core stage preliminary design review (PDR) was held Thursday at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and included representatives from the agency and The Boeing Co. Boeing's Exploration Launch Systems in Huntsville is the prime contractor for the core stage and its avionics. Marshall manages the SLS Program.

"Passing a preliminary design review within 12 months of bringing Boeing on contract shows we are on track toward meeting a 2017 launch date," said Tony Lavoie, manager of the SLS Stages Element at Marshall. "We can now allow those time-critical areas of design to move forward with initial fabrication and proceed toward the final design phase -- culminating in a critical design review in 2014 -- with confidence."

The first flight test of the SLS, which will feature a configuration for a 70-metric ton lift capacity and carry an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond the moon, is scheduled for 2017. As the SLS evolves, a two-stage launch vehicle using the core stage will provide a lift capability of 130-metric tons to enable missions beyond low-Earth orbit and to support deep space exploration.

The purpose of the PDR was to ensure the design met system requirements within acceptable risk and fell within schedule and budget constraints. An important part of the PDR was to prove the core stage could integrate safely with other elements of the rocket's main engines and solid rocket boosters, the crew capsule and the launch facilities at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Core stage designers provided an in-depth assessment to a board of engineers comprised of propulsion and design experts from across the agency and the aerospace industry.

"Each individual element of this program has to be at the same level of maturity before we can move the program as a whole to the next step," SLS Program Manager Todd May said. "The core stage is the rocket's central propulsion element and will be an optimized blend of new and existing hardware design. We're building it with longer tanks, longer feed lines and advanced manufacturing processes. We are running ahead of schedule and will leverage that schedule margin to ensure a safe and affordable rocket for our first flight in 2017."

The core stage will be built at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans using state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment. The plant continues modifying its facilities and ordering materials for construction of the rocket. Michoud has built components for NASA's spacecraft for decades, most recently, the space shuttle's external tanks.

NASA Puts Orion Backup Parachutes to the Test

HOUSTON -- NASA completed the latest in a series of parachute tests for its Orion spacecraft Thursday at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in southwestern Arizona, marking another step toward a first flight test in 2014. The test verified Orion can land safely even if one of its two drogue parachutes does not open during descent.

Orion will take humans farther into space than ever before, but one of the most challenging things the multipurpose vehicle will do is bring its crew home safely. Because it will return from greater distances, Orion will reenter the Earth's atmosphere at speeds of more than 20,000 mph. After re-entry, the parachutes are all that will lower the capsule carrying astronauts back to Earth.

"The mockup vehicle landed safely in the desert and everything went as planned," said Chris Johnson, a NASA project manager for Orion's parachute assembly system. "We designed the parachute system so nothing will go wrong, but plan and test as though something will so we can make sure Orion is the safest vehicle ever to take humans to space."

Orion uses five parachutes. Three are main parachutes measuring 116 feet wide and two are drogue parachutes measuring 23 feet wide. The 21,000-pound capsule needs only two main parachutes and one drogue. The extra two provide a backup in case one of the primary parachutes fails.

To verify Orion could land safely with only one drogue parachute, engineers dropped a spacecraft mockup from a plane 25,000 feet above the Arizona desert and simulated a failure of one of the drogues. About 30 seconds into the mockup's fall, the second drogue parachute opened and slowed the mockup down enough for the three main parachutes to take over the descent.

The next Orion parachute test is scheduled for February and will simulate a failure of one of the three main parachutes.

In 2014, an uncrewed Orion spacecraft will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Exploration Flight Test-1. The spacecraft will travel 3,600 miles above Earth's surface. This is 15 times farther than the International Space Station's orbit and farther than any spacecraft designed to carry humans has gone in more than 40 years. The main flight objective is to test Orion's heat shield performance at speeds generated during a return from deep space.

NASA Selects Internet Services Agreement

WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected InfoZen Inc. of Rockville, Md., for the Web Enterprise Service Technologies prime blanket purchase agreement to support agency websites.

Orders against this blanket purchase agreement (BPA) will be issued on a firm-fixed-price basis. NASA estimates the volume of purchases through this BPA will be $40 million. The base period of performance will be one year with four one-year options.

This procurement will enable an agency-wide capability to create, maintain, and manage websites. The contract will provide a cloud-based solution for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) for internal and external websites and web applications. Those services include content management, and search and collaborative services, such as blogs and wikis.

NASA Awards Flight Projects Building Construction Contract

GREENBELT, Md. -- NASA has selected SEMI USA Corporation of Houston to construct the Flight Projects Building at the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

This firm-fixed-price contract is valued at approximately $31 million, with options for about $1 million worth of additional work. The period of performance for all work is 18 months from issuance of the Notice to Proceed on or about January 31, 2013.

The Flight Projects Building will contain 120,000 square feet of office space distributed on four floors. The steel-frame, clear-span structure will have glass and terracotta rain-screen panel walls with sun-shading elements. The building also will have interior demountable and fixed walls. Associated work includes spread-mat foundation, new and upgraded roadways, parking, traffic signals, perimeter site access fencing, site lighting, new and upgraded utilities, erosion and sediment control, storm water management, and landscaping. This new construction is designed to achieve a minimum of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) 2009 V3 silver certification.

New Trio Lifts Off to the International Space Station

HOUSTON -- With temperatures well below freezing at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Tom Marshburn of NASA, Roman Romanenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency launched Wednesday to the International Space Station at 6:12 a.m. CST (6:12 p.m. Baikonur time).

The trio will dock its Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft to the Rassvet module on the Russian segment of the space station at 8:12 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 21. About three hours later, hatches between the Soyuz and the orbiting laboratory will open. Marshburn, Romanenko and Hadfield will be greeted by space station Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford of NASA and Flight Engineers Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin of Roscosmos, who have been in orbit since late-October.

NASA Television coverage of docking begins at 7:30 a.m. on Friday, and hatch opening coverage begins at 10:15 a.m.

Marshburn, Romanenko and Hadfield will remain aboard the station until May 2013. Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin will return to Earth on March 15, when Hadfield will become the first Canadian commander of the space station.

The focus of Expedition 34 is scientific research, with the astronauts serving as subjects for human physiology tests, including examinations of astronaut bone loss. The crew also is conducting a wide range of physical science, Earth observation, human research and technology demonstration investigations. Experiments will investigate how fire behaves in space, which could help improve engine fuel efficiency and fire suppression methods in space and on Earth. Other research will look at fluids that change physical properties in the presence of a magnet, which could improve bridge and building designs to better withstand earthquakes. With the help of cameras set up by the crew, students on Earth are capturing photos of our planet.

NASA'S Next-Generation Communications Satellite Arrives At Kennedy

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's newest Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, known as TDRS-K, arrived Tuesday at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for a Jan. 29 launch. TDRS-K arrived aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 from the Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems assembly facility in El Segundo, Calif.

For almost 30 years, the TDRS spacecraft have provided a reliable communications network for NASA, serving numerous national and international space missions. The TDRS fleet is a space-based communication system used to provide tracking, telemetry, command, and high bandwidth data return services. The satellites provide in-flight communications with spacecraft operating in low-Earth orbit. It has been 10 years since NASA's last TDRS launch.

"This launch will provide even greater capabilities to a network that has become key to enabling many of NASA's scientific discoveries," says Jeffrey Gramling, project manager for TDRS at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

TDRS-K will launch to geostationary orbit aboard an Atlas V rocket. The spacecraft is the first of three next-generation satellites designed to ensure vital operational continuity for NASA by expanding the lifespan of the fleet. The launch of TDRS-L is scheduled for 2014 and TDRS-M in 2015.

Each of the new satellites has a higher performance solar panel design to provide more spacecraft power. This upgrade will return signal processing for the S-Band multiple access service to the ground -- the same as the first-generation TDRS spacecraft. Ground-based processing allows TDRS to service more customers with different and evolving communication requirements.

The TDRS fleet began operating during the space shuttle era and provides critical communication support from several locations in geostationary orbit to NASA's human spaceflight endeavors, including the International Space Station. The fleet also provides communications support to an array of science missions, as well as various types of launch vehicles. Of the nine TDRS satellites launched, seven are still operational, although four are already beyond their design life. Two have been retired. The second TDRS was lost in 1986 during the space shuttle Challenger accident.

NASA's Space Communications and Navigation Program, part of the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington, is responsible for the TDRS network. NASA's Launch Services Program at Kennedy is responsible for launch management. United Launch Alliance provides the Atlas V rocket launch service.

NASA's Grail Lunar Impact Site Named for Astronaut Sally Ride

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA has named the site where twin agency spacecraft impacted the moon Monday in honor of the late astronaut, Sally K. Ride, who was America's first woman in space and a member of the probes' mission team.

Last Friday, Ebb and Flow, the two spacecraft comprising NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, were commanded to descend into a lower orbit that would result in an impact Monday on a mountain near the moon's north pole. The formation-flying duo hit the lunar surface as planned at 2:28:51 p.m. PST (5:28:51 p.m. EST) and 2:29:21 p.m. PST (5:29:21 p.m. EST) at a speed of 3,760 mph (1.7 kilometers per second). The location of the Sally K. Ride Impact Site is on the southern face of an approximately 1.5 mile- (2.5 -kilometer) tall mountain near a crater named Goldschmidt.

"Sally was all about getting the job done, whether it be in exploring space, inspiring the next generation, or helping make the GRAIL mission the resounding success it is today," said GRAIL principal investigator Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. "As we complete our lunar mission, we are proud we can honor Sally Ride's contributions by naming this corner of the moon after her."

The impact marked a successful end to the GRAIL mission, which was NASA's first planetary mission to carry cameras fully dedicated to education and public outreach. Ride, who died in July after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer, led GRAIL's MoonKAM (Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students) Program through her company, Sally Ride Science, in San Diego.

Along with its primary science instrument, each spacecraft carried a MoonKAM camera that took more than 115,000 total images of the lunar surface. Imaging targets were proposed by middle school students from across the country and the resulting images returned for them to study. The names of the spacecraft were selected by Ride and the mission team from student submissions in a nationwide contest.

"Sally Ride worked tirelessly throughout her life to remind all of us, especially girls, to keep questioning and learning," said Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland. "Today her passion for making students part of NASA's science is honored by naming the impact site for her."

Fifty minutes prior to impact, the spacecraft fired their engines until the propellant was depleted. The maneuver was designed to determine precisely the amount of fuel remaining in the tanks. This will help NASA engineers validate computer models to improve predictions of fuel needs for future missions.

"Ebb fired its engines for 4 minutes, 3 seconds and Flow fired its for 5 minutes, 7 seconds," said GRAIL project manager David Lehman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "It was one final important set of data from a mission that was filled with great science and engineering data."

The mission team deduced that much of the material aboard each spacecraft was broken up in the energy released during the impacts. Most of what remained probably is buried in shallow craters. The craters' size may be determined when NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter returns images of the area in several weeks.

Launched in September 2011, Ebb and Flow had been orbiting the moon since Jan. 1, 2012. The probes intentionally were sent into the lunar surface because they did not have sufficient altitude or fuel to continue science operations. Their successful prime and extended science missions generated the highest resolution gravity field map of any celestial body. The map will provide a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed and evolved.

"We will miss our lunar twins, but the scientists tell me it will take years to analyze all the great data they got, and that is why we came to the moon in the first place," Lehman said. "So long, Ebb and Flow, and we thank you."

JPL manages the GRAIL mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. GRAIL is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft.

White House Releases Report on Beyond the Border and Regulatory Cooperation Council with Canada

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

WASHINGTON, DC – On December 7, 2011, President Obama and Prime Minister Harper of Canada met at the White House and announced two initiatives to ensure that the vital economic partnership that joins the United States and Canada continues to be the cornerstone of our economic competitiveness and security  -- the Beyond the Border (BTB) Action Plan and the Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC) Action Plan.  These Action Plans build on our well-established bilateral cooperation on trade, investment, emergency preparedness, and security.  They also describe specific initiatives with timelines for implementation that promote transparency, efficiency, and the free and secure flow of people and goods.

Today, we are jointly releasing two reports that summarize the significant progress made under these initiatives.  While our efforts are not complete, our two governments have worked together over the past year in a concerted way to advance our perimeter security and economic competitiveness, achieving results that will translate into a significant savings that will improve the lives of residents, visitors, and businesses in both our countries. 

The Beyond the Border Report highlights a number of the objectives achieved over the past year, which both provide economic benefits and enhance security, including:

·         Mutual recognition of our respective air cargo security programs for passenger aircraft, eliminating the need for re-screening, increasing the number of flights that can travel and allowing airports to shorten the time between flights;

·         An operational model for a pilot program to inspect truck cargo well before the border, reducing wait times at the border, and resulting in increased throughput of goods each day; and;

·         Providing additional benefits to trusted travelers, including expedited passenger screening at U.S. airports for Canadian travelers, making it easier to travel to more than one U.S. destination, increasing the number of tourism dollars spent here.

The Regulatory Cooperation Council, in fulfilling its mandate to promote economic growth and job creation, has spurred unprecedented cooperation to provide benefits to our consumers, regulators, and businesses through increased regulatory transparency and coordination while maintaining high standards of public health and safety and environmental protection. The Council has achieved significant progress over the past year, including:

·         Pilot projects for simultaneous submissions to regulators in both countries for approval of crop protection products;

·         In the area of veterinary drugs, simultaneous reviews by U.S. and Canadian regulators for several drug submissions; 

·         A pilot project for the joint inspection of non-U.S. and non-Canadian flagged vessels entering the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway, focusing on maritime security and pollution prevention, and monitoring living and working conditions for workers on these ships; and

·         A proposal to align U.S. and Canadian rules on tire safety and occupant restraint systems in frontal impact collisions.

For more than forty years, the increasing integration of the economies of the United States and Canada has been key to our two countries’ prosperity and security.  We intend to continue to work together under these initiatives through 2013, 2014, and beyond to reduce and eliminate barriers to trade and investment, securing our shared competitiveness for the 21st century.

The Republic of Cyprus becomes a CERN Associate Member State

George Demosthenous (left), Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Cyprus signs the agreement with CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer (Image: Ministry of Education and Culture, Cyprus)

Geneva, 5 October 2012. The CERN1 Director-General, Rolf Heuer, and the Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Cyprus, George Demosthenous, today signed an agreement under which the Republic of Cyprus will become an Associate Member State in the pre-stage to Membership. The agreement will have to be ratified by the Parliament of Cyprus before coming into force.

"We are very happy to welcome the Republic of Cyprus as a new Associate Member State in the pre-stage to Membership," declared CERN's Director-General, Rolf Heuer. "Cypriot physicists have made up a small but very active community at CERN for many years. This new status will enable the country to derive greater benefit from the opportunities offered by CERN, whether through participation in scientific programmes, through industrial development or through education and training."

"It is with great pleasure that I have signed, on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Cyprus, our country’s admission to CERN as an Associate Member State in the pre-stage to Membership. We consider this agreement to be the cornerstone of our efforts to support and enhance the Cypriot scientific and research community and we are certain that as an Associate Member our contribution to CERN will not only continue but it will undoubtedly be strengthened", said George Demosthenous, Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Cyprus.

In the early 1990s, physicists from the Republic of Cyprus took part in the L3 experiment at CERN's Large Electron Positron (LEP) collider before joining the CMS collaboration, one of the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), in 1995. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the University of Cyprus and CMS in 1999 under which Cypriot scientists have notably contributed to the development of the solenoid magnet and of the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter. They are also involved in the physics analyses of the CMS experiment, including in certain searches for the Higgs boson and beauty quarks.

“This Associate Membership shows our young generation that high-calibre research, innovation and education is the right way to stimulate development, pointing to a bright future for Europe. CERN is a living example of European integration and world collaborative spirit”, added Panos Razis, Professor and Leader of the High Energy Physics team at the University of Cyprus. “The dream we set 20 years ago when we founded the first university of the country now becomes a reality.”

The Republic of Cyprus is the third country to accede to the status of Associate Member State in the pre-stage to Membership after Israel in 2011 and Serbia earlier in 2012.

Contact

Emmanuel Tsesmelis, CERN Directorate Office:
Emmanuel.Tsesmelis@cern.ch
+41 (0)76 487 40 57
Footnote(s)

1. CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's leading laboratory for particle physics. It has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Romania has the status of Candidate for Accession. Israel and Serbia are Associate Member States in the pre-stage to Membership. India, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and UNESCO have Observer status.

Professor Agnieszka Zalewska elected President of CERN Council

Agnieszka Zalewska (Image: CERN)

Geneva, 20 September 2012. CERN1 Council today elected Professor Agnieszka Zalewska as its 21st President for a period of one year renewable twice, with a mandate starting on 1 January 2013. Professor Zalewska takes over from Michel Spiro who comes to the conclusion of his three-year term at the end of December.

“I feel particularly honoured to have presided over the CERN Council through a period that has seen the first major results from the LHC,” said Professor Spiro. “But we are just at the start, so while warmly thanking CERN management and personnel for the last three years, I’d like to wish Professor Zalewska all the very best as the LHC adventure continues to unfold.”

Agnieszka Zalewska is a Professor at the H. Niewodniczański Institute of High Energy Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She has a distinguished career in particle physics and a long association with CERN. She received her doctorate in 1975 from the Jagellonian University, Krakow, for work carried out on bubble chamber data from an experiment at CERN. Later, she worked on the DELPHI experiment at CERN’s Large Electron Positron collider, LEP, where she played an important role in the development of silicon tracking detectors. Since 2000, she has been involved with neutrino physics through the ICARUS experiment at Italy’s Gran Sasso National Laboratory, which studies a neutrino beam sent through the Earth from CERN, and has also been involved with feasibility studies for an underground laboratory in Poland. She has been a member of several CERN committees, and has been the Polish scientific delegate to the CERN Council since January 2010.

“The coming years will be fascinating, but demanding, as we prepare the LHC for running at higher energies and implement the updated European Strategy for Particle Physics,” said Zalewska. “CERN and its Council will become my only priority, and I would like to thank the Council members and outgoing President for the confidence they have placed in me.”

About the CERN Council
Footnote(s)

1. CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's leading laboratory for particle physics. It has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Romania is a candidate for accession. Israel and Serbia are Associate Members in the pre-stage to Membership. India, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and UNESCO have Observer status.

LHC experiments bring new insight into matter of the primordial universe

Geneva, 13 August 2012. Experiments using heavy ions at CERN1’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are advancing understanding of the primordial universe. The ALICE, ATLAS and CMS collaborations have made new measurements of the kind of matter that probably existed in the first instants of the universe. They will present their latest results at the Quark Matter 2012 conference, which starts today in Washington DC. The new findings are based mainly on the four-week LHC run with lead ions in 2011, during which the experiments collected 20 times more data than in 2010.

Just after the big bang, quarks and gluons – basic building blocks of matter – were not confined inside composite particles such as protons and neutrons, as they are today. Instead, they moved freely in a state of matter known as "quark–gluon plasma". Collisions of lead ions in the LHC, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, recreate for a fleeting moment conditions similar to those of the early universe. By examining a billion or so of these collisions, the experiments have been able to make more precise measurements of the properties of matter under these extreme conditions.

“The field of heavy-ion physics is crucial for probing the properties of matter in the primordial universe, one of the key questions of fundamental physics that the LHC and its experiments are designed to address. It illustrates how in addition to the investigation of the recently discovered Higgs-like boson, physicists at the LHC are studying many other important phenomena in both proton–proton and lead–lead collisions,” said CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer.

At the conference, the ALICE, ATLAS and CMS collaborations will present more refined characterizations of the densest and hottest matter ever studied in the laboratory – 100,000 times hotter than the interior of the Sun and denser than a neutron star.

ALICE will present a wealth of new results on all aspects of the evolution of high-density, strongly interacting matter in both space and time. Important studies deal with “charmed particles”, which contain a charm or anticharm quark. Charm quarks, 100 times heavier than the up and down quarks that form normal matter, are significantly decelerated by their passage through quark–gluon plasma, offering scientists a unique tool to probe its properties. ALICE physicists will report indications that the flow in the plasma is so strong that the heavy charmed particles are dragged along by it. The experiment has also observed indications of a thermalization phenomenon, which involves the recombination of charm and anticharm quarks to form “charmonium”.

“This is only one leading example of the scientific opportunities in reach of the ALICE experiment,” said Paolo Giubellino, spokesperson of the ALICE collaboration. “With more data still being analysed and further data-taking scheduled for next February, we are closer than ever to unravelling the properties of the primordial state of the universe: the quark–gluon plasma.”

In the 1980s, the initial dissociation of charmonium was proposed as a direct signature for the formation of quark–gluon plasma, and first experimental indications of this dissociation were reported from fixed-target experiments at CERN’s Super Proton Synchrotron in 2000. The much higher energy of the LHC makes it possible for the first time to study similar tightly-bound states of the heavier beauty quarks. The hypothesis was that, depending on their binding energy, some of these states would “melt” in the plasma produced, while others would survive the extreme temperature. The CMS experiment now observes clear signs of the expected sequential suppression of the “quarkonium” (quark–antiquark) states.

“CMS will present important new heavy-ion results not only on quarkonium suppression, but also on bulk properties of the medium and on a variety of studies of jet quenching,” said CMS spokesperson Joseph Incandela. “We are entering an exciting new era of high-precision research on strongly interacting matter at the highest energies produced in the laboratory.”

The quenching of jets is the phenomenon in which highly energetic sprays of particles break up in the dense quark–gluon plasma, giving scientists detailed information about the density and properties of the produced matter. ATLAS will report new findings on jet quenching, including a high-precision study of how the jets fragment in matter, and on the correlations between jets and electroweak bosons. The results are complementary to other exciting ones, including groundbreaking findings on the flow of the plasma.

“We have entered a new phase in which we not only observe the phenomenon of quark–gluon plasma, but where we can also make high-precision measurements using a variety of probes,” said ATLAS spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti. “The studies will contribute significantly to our understanding of the early universe.” 

Jobs & Internships at AHC

The AHC's Internship:

The American Hellenic Council is offering internships throughout the year. The internships are geared towards undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in:
•  US politics with a focus on foreign policy and in particular the area of the Eastern Mediterranean
•  Journalism and idea creation and dissemination.
•  Community-building relations and non-profit fundraising
•  Event management
The responsibilities, workload and nature of each intern's work can be customized based on each intern's interests as well as the needs of the Council at the time after a meeting with the Council's Executive Director. The focus would be to hone the skills that the intern would like to develop further or introduce him/her in new fields/areas of expertise. Examples of an intern's responsibilities are generally:
•  Monitor and help advocate legislation with US Congressional offices.
•  Conduct research on issues of concern
•  Help produce and disseminate ideas, including developing presentations, papers, articles, interviews.
•  Assist with fundraising and community relations
•  Assist with event management
•  Conduct and assist with Social Media and Advocacy campaigns
Eligibility & Qualifications:
We are seeking highly motivated, responsible individuals with strong research and writing skills and excellent oral communication skills.
The internship is open to college students, graduate students and on an exceptional basis, high school seniors. Foreign students are eligible if they have a current student visa and/or work permit. All majors are eligible.
Duration, workload & location:
The duration and workload of the internship varies based on the intern's schedule and availability and the needs of the Council. Internships start a minimum of 10 hours per week and during a recess in the academic year, they can be as high as 30 hours per week. We will try to accommodate the needs of each qualified intern based on his primary academic schedule in advance.
Although we strongly prefer interns who will be able to come to the office for interaction with our staff, remote interns will be considered as long as the differences in time and location can be abridged successfully. We do feel however that both the intern and the AHC would benefit more from real-time in-person exchanges in most cases.
Compensation, Housing & Academic Credit:
The internship is unsalaried and we do not provide housing. We will reimburse the interns for any expenses or mileage incurred. We are currently working with colleges in the area to see if we can create a program that will give our interns Academic Credit but this has not been established as of yet.
What do our interns gain:
Our interns will benefit through an enhanced learning of US foreign policy, American federal politics and international relations. They will be able to learn more about the current political issues surrounding Greece and Cyprus, how governmental and super-governmental bodies work. They will also learn about community-building relations, event management and will benefit through an enhanced network of contacts that they will develop by interacting with our member base.
To apply:
Applicants should email our Executive Director: director@americanhellenic.org
•  Their resume (CV) and their availability as to time and location.
•  Their major and GPA average
•  A brief statement (paragraph) of why they would like to intern at AHC.
•  A past writing sample (article from college/high-school newspaper, essay etc)
*Please apply only if you can dedicate a minimum of 5 weeks and 10 hours per week.
http://www.americanhellenic.org/jobs_internships/ahc_internships.php