Jordan’s SESAME Particle Accelerator Project Names Israeli Scientist as VP
by Joshua Levitt
A project at CERN, the European nuclear research facility. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Eliezer Rabinovici, a physics professor at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, was named as Vice-President of SESAME, a project to build a particle accelerator near Al-Balqa University, west of Amman, AFP reported.
A project at CERN, the European nuclear research facility. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The plan for SESAME, or the Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East, is based on a facility operated by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, near Geneva.
Rabinovici said the SESAME project is allowing scientists from across the Middle East to collaborate despite hostile relations between some of their countries.
Related coverage
As well as Israel and Jordan, SESAME’s members include Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, and the Palestinian Authority, as well as “observer” states from Europe, Britain, the U.S. and Japan, according to its website.
Rabinovici told AFP, “This program has scientific value and is also a platform that allows many states in the region to collaborate towards scientific goals. We work together towards goals that advance the interests of the entire region… thanks to the trust built between us over many years and without the pressures that dominate the political arena.”
