Vinod Chohan

Key takeaways

Vinod Chohan belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Vinod Chohan to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Vinod Chohan from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Vinod Chandrasinh Chohan (1 May 1949 – 12 June 2017) was a Tanzanian-born accelerator specialist and engineer. He was a Senior Staff Member at CERN for nearly 40 years. He held a leading position at CERN's Antiproton Accumulator, a machine that was part of the infrastructure connected to the UA1 and UA2 experiments, where the W and Z bosons were discovered in 1983. Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer received the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery. Chohan worked closely with the latter on the antiproton accumulator. Chohan was a substantial contributor to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), leading the team that tested, measured and trained more than a thousand superconducting magnets for the LHC.

During his nearly 40 years as a staff member at CERN he held technical and management positions such as in beam diagnostics, instrumentation, accelerator studies, controls, testing of superconducting magnet and safety.

Early life and education Vinod Chohan was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika on 1 May 1949 into a Saurashtran Gujarati Indo-Tanzanian Hindu family. He commenced his secondary education at Govt Indian Secondary School, later called Azania Secondary School in Upanga, Tanzania, and in 1967, moved to Colston's School in Bristol. Chohan studied electrical and electronic engineering at University College, Cardiff, and obtained his PhD at University of Essex in 1974.

Career Vinod Chohan joined CERN in January 1975 as a Fellow in the Proton Synchrotron division. From 1977 to 1980 he worked at Swiss Institute for Nuclear Research, in the Beam Dynamics Group of the Cyclotron Accelerator Division. In 1980, he returned to CERN as a staff member in the Proton Synchrotron division, under which he later worked with beam diagnostics and safety. During his nearly 40 years at CERN he has held various positions, such as Accelerator Operation Coordinator for the Antiproton Accumulator Complex. This machine created antiprotons for the Super Proton Synchrotron, and was part of the infrastructure that led to the discovery of the W and Z bosons for which Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer received the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physics. During his tenure at CERN, he was associated with Fermilab for the commissioning of an antiproton source 1985 and 1986 and at the Los Alamos National Laboratory where he collaborated on Proton Storage Ring in 1989. In 1993 he taught a course at the CERN Accelerator School on Accelerator Systems, held at the Centre for Advance Technology, Indore, India. In 2002, he joined the LHC Project team responsible for developing CERN's new project, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Chohan led and managed the team responsible for testing hundreds of superconducting magnets to be used in the collider. This was a tedious process: 1706 superconducting magnets – each 14 meters long — were to be tested. From the beginning of the testing in 2001 to 2002, only 21 magnets were tested, due to shortage of staff. The situation improved when one started recruiting personnel from India, for a year at the time, as part of the CERN-India Collaboration on LHC. Over 7 years Chohan led this international team which fully tested, qualified and trained up about 1300 superconducting magnets for use in the LHC. Chohan became member of the joint CERN-Department of Atomic Energy, India committee for the CERN-India Collaboration in 2007. During the LHC construction, he has featured in London Science Museum's Big Bang exhibition in 2007 and in 2008 he was featured in BBC Horizon, a documentary television series. After the LHC start-up in 2008, Chohan led the team responsible for technical coordination at all of CERN's accelerators and beam experimental areas, except for the LHC. Chohan became member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology in 1981 and became a fellow in November 2013.

Publications Chohan, Vinod C (2011). "Simon van der Meer (1925–2011): A modest genius of accelerator science". Rev. Accel. Sci. Technol. 4 (1): 279–291. doi:10.1142/s1793626811000550. Chohan, Vinod (2012). Simon van der Meer and his legacy to CERN and particle accelerators. Geneva: CERN. Chohan, Vinod; Van der Meer, Simon (December 1989). "Aspects of automation and applications in the CERN antiproton source". CERN. 293 (1–2): 98–102. Bibcode:1990NIMPA.293...98C. doi:10.1016/0168-9002(90)91408-4. Publications on the Antiproton Accumulator Chohan, V. (August 1989), The Future of AAC Controls System: Options for Discussion (PDF), PS/AR Notes, CERN Chohan, V. (23 September 1986), Status of control system for AA and AC (PDF), ACOL Notes, CERN Chohan, V. (August 1990). "The CERN antiproton source: Controls aspects of the additional collector ring and fast sampling devices". Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A. 293 (1–2): 93–97. Bibcode:1990NIMPA.293...93C. doi:10.1016/0168-9002(90)91407-3. Chohan, Vinod; Johnson, C; Potier, J P; Miller, M (2005). "Fast CAMAC-based sampling digitizers and digital filters for beam diagnostics and control in the CERN PS complex". Computing in Accelerator Design and Operation. Lecture Notes in Physics. Vol. 215. pp. 405–410. doi:10.1007/3540139095_138. ISBN 978-3-540-13909-6. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)

External links "Quasar Group". University of Liverpool. Retrieved 14 August 2015. "Maker Camp: CERN and the Large Hadron Collider". 17 August 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2017 – via YouTube. "Complete list of publications by Vinod Chohan". Retrieved 23 June 2017.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Vinod Chohan

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Vinod Chohan claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Vinod Chohan before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Vinod Chohan ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Vinod Chohan

In research: Vinod Chohan appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Vinod Chohan in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Vinod Chohan is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1949 births, 2017 deaths, Alumni of Cardiff University, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Vinod Chohan outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Vinod Chohan in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Vinod Chohan means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Vinod Chohan out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Vinod Chohan in simple terms?

Vinod Chandrasinh Chohan (1 May 1949 – 12 June 2017) was a Tanzanian-born accelerator specialist and engineer. He was a Senior Staff Member at CERN for nearly 40 years.

Why does Vinod Chohan matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Vinod Chohan?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Vinod Chohan.