Nuclear Physics Research Committee

In 1960 the Director-General John Adams proposed a number of measures to define a global policy for the exploitation of the Synchro-Cyclotron and the new Proton Synchrotron. He decided to create three Committees, one for each experimental technique used:

• Emulsions: Emulsion Committee (EmC)
• Electronic: Electronic Experiments Commitee (EEC)
• Bubble Chambers: Track Chamber Committee (TCC)

The recommendations of these three committees were then passed to the Nuclear Physics Research Committee (NPRC) under the Chairpersonship of the Director-General, which took the final decisions concerning the experimental programme and the facilities offered by the PS and SC accelerators.

The NPRC took into consideration not only the scientific merit of the experiments proposed, but also their technical and financial implications and whether they were compatible with the other experiments in the programme.

The members of the NPRC were the chairmen of the EmC, TCC, EEC, and the leader, or a representative of the Nuclear Physics (NP), Theory (TH), Proton Synchrotron (PS), Synchro-Cyclotron (SC), Data Handling (DD), Track Chamber (TC) and Nuclear Physics Apparatus (NPA) divisions.

In addition to approving new proposals the Physics Committee and the NPRC regularly reviewed the status and needs of the various experiments in progress.

In 1976 (end of the bubble chambers period) John Adams and Léon Van Hove rationalized the system, abolishing the committee system based on experimental techniques, and basing it instead on the machine. The NPRC was replaced by the Research Board (RB).

For more information, see https://sis.web.cern.ch/archives/history_CERN/Scientific_committees#NPRC