KEK, The National Lab for High Energy Physic in Tsukuba, Ibaraki.

The National Laboratory for High Energy Physics, sometimes referred to as KEK, was established in April 1971 to conduct experiments in elementary particle physics. Research efforts are divided into four major areas Accelerator Department, Physics Department, Radiation Safety Control Center, and Photon Factory. Under the direction of Prof. Shigenori Hiramatsu, Dr. David Whittum is carrying out research on designs of compact high energy accelerators that can achieve a steep potential gradient for fast acceleration of electrons within a short distance. In his experiments, he uses two identical linacs to drive two electron beams where one electron excites wakefields in a test medium such as a plasma and then the second electron beam gets accelerated by the effect of the wakefield created by the first electron beam.