On May 9, LIP – Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas, which is a research centre at IST Department of Physics, celebrated its 31st anniversary. The celebrations included the inauguration of LIP’s new facilities and the 1st Remote Control Room of CMS and Auger Experiments in Portugal.

The Remote Control Room is located at the Department of Physics and will allow researchers “to actively participate in experiments without being physically present”, said professor Pedro Abreu, one of the coordinators at LIP. Scientists can remotely control systems from this room, including real-time data verification.

LIP’s new facilities are located at the building of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research (3I’s) – Universidade de Lisboa, which will allow 1st and 2nd cycle students to have classes in LIP’s laboratories. LIP will be able to receive more MSc and PhD students who want to do research and develop technologies within this area. The inauguration of the new facilities was attended by the rector of Universidade de Lisboa, professor António Cruz Serra.

During the afternoon LIP opened its doors to the community and the visitors had the opportunity to contact with state-of-the-art research carried out at the research unit. Two lectures focused on current and future challenges of Particle Physics and Astroparticle Physics were held.

According to professor Pedro Abreu, LIP celebrates 31 years “of intensive participation in a large set of international experiments and collaborations, including computing innovations, applications to Medical Physics and promotion of scientific literacy”.