Opening of the workshop

Abstract

It is my great pleasure, ladies and gentlemen, to welcome you to Uppsala University for discussions on the very interesting subject of muon catalysed fusion. The University is 515 years old and the oldest in Scandinavia. It has about 20 000 students and a staff of 5 000 persons. One of the great scientists of our University was Carl yon Linn6, who lived in the 18th century and who conceived the sexual system of plants. His Systema Naturae from 1735, when he was 28 years old, classified plants, animals and minerals. In the 20th century the University has maintained a high standard and has seen six of its scholars receive the Nobel Prize. Today it is a modern university integrated in a wide net of international contacts. Among the 7 faculties, the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences is the largest, having 80 chairs in 6 different subject fields: mathematics, physics, chemistry, geosciences, biology and technology. About 60 doctorate degrees are awarded each year. There are four-year undergraduate study programs in computer science and natural sciences including mathematics. The engineering programs last four and a half year and presently cover engineering physics, material physics and a newly started program in molecular biotechnology. The latter program is unique for Sweden and profits from the strong research profile in the life sciences. In addition there is also a two-year engineering school. Altogether about 3 000 students are enrolled in the study programs. Material science is one of the strong interdisciplinary research fields that has profited from innovations in surface sciences such as the ESCA method developed to high precision by Kai Siegbahn and the next speaker Carl Nordling. One of the University's next priorities is a new center for material science named the Angstr6m laboratory after a well-known Uppsala scientist who lent his name to a unit defining length on the atomic scale. The name suits well the center where structures of carbon and silicon will be manufactured with atomic precision and microrobots will be developed for a variety of uses in the human blood vessels or in the pipes of a nuclear reactor. Fresh-water research is another interdisciplinary field of increasing importance. The Uppsala Water Center coordinates research in 20 different departments also coming from the neighbouring University of Agriculture and two national institutes, the National Environment Protection Board and the Geological Survey