The Instituto de Física Corpuscular (IFIC,

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: ''Institute for Corpuscular Physics'') is a CSIC and

University of Valencia The University of Valencia ( ca-valencia, Universitat de València ; also known as UV) is a public research university located in the city of Valencia, Spain. It is one of the oldest surviving universities in Spain, and the oldest in the Vale ...

joint center dedicated to experimental and theoretical research in the fields of

particle physics Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) an ...

nuclear physics Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...

, astroparticles and

medical physics Medical physics deals with the application of the concepts and methods of physics to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human diseases with a specific goal of improving human health and well-being. Since 2008, medical physics has been incl ...

. It is located at th
scientific park
of the University of Valencia, in

Paterna Paterna is a city and a municipality in the province of Valencia in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is located northeast of the comarca of '' L'Horta de Valencia'', northwest of the inland suburbs of Valencia, and on the left bank of the riv ...

( Valencia, Spain).

History

In the autumn of 1950 Prof. Joaquin Catalá formed a group in Valencia to study

atomic nuclei The atomic nucleus is the small, dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom, discovered in 1911 by Ernest Rutherford based on the 1909 Geiger–Marsden gold foil experiment. After the discovery of the neutron ...

and

elementary particles In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a subatomic particle that is not composed of other particles. Particles currently thought to be elementary include electrons, the fundamental fermions (quarks, leptons, anti ...

using

nuclear emulsion A nuclear emulsion plate is a type of particle detector first used in nuclear and particle physics experiments in the early decades of the 20th century. https://cds.cern.ch/record/1728791/files/vol6-issue5-p083-e.pdf''The Study of Elementary Partic ...

s. He had first been working in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

with C.F. Powell, who received the

Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

in 1950 for using this technique to detect particles in

cosmic rays Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our ow ...

. Prof. Catalá’s group first operated as a Local Division of the Instituto de Óptica Daza de Valdés belonging to CSIC and specialized in photo-nuclear studies. One of Catalá’s students, Fernando Senent, later becoming Professor and director of the Institute, produced what was the first Spanish thesis in Experimental Particle and Nuclear Physics. It was at the beginning of 1960 when the Institute got its present name, IFIC, Instituto de Física Corpuscular. IFIC, hence, is one of the oldest Spanish Institutes in Experimental Physics and the oldest studying particle and nuclear physics.

References

*Navarro Brotons V., 2000. "Valencia, cuna de la Física de partículas en España", ''Mètode'', Anuario 2000

External links

Instituto de Física Corpuscular (IFIC)Promotional video of IFIC
Physics research institutes Research institutes in Spain Schools in Paterna {{physics-org-stub