International Collaboration

The Pierre Auger Project developed from a suggestion by Jim Cronin and Alan Watson in 1992 to build a giant air shower array with much greater collecting power than had ever been considered previously. The idea developed through a sequence of workshops in Paris (1992), Adelaide (1993), Tokyo (1993), and finally at Fermilab in 1995. The Design Group for the Auger Project hosted by Fermilab, in Batavia, Illinois, USA, which met from January 30 through July 31, 1995, produced a design report containing a reference design and a cost estimate for the proposed detector. It became the basis for funding proposals in 17 participating countries. Jim Cronin was given the title Spokesperson Emeritus in 2002; Alan Watson also became Spokesperson Emeritus in 2007. The present spokesperson is Giorgio Matthiae, and Paul Sommers is co-spokesperson. Paul Mantsch is the Project Manager and Hans Bluemer chairs the important Task Force for Auger North. The Auger Observatory is designed for matching detectors in the northern and southern hemispheres to achieve nearly uniform acceptance to cosmic rays from all parts of the sky. Construction of Auger North is expected when Auger South is complete.

Click here for more about the Auger Project spokespersons

In November of 1995 a meeting was held in Paris to form the collaboration, which chose the Mendoza, Argentina site in the Southern Hemisphere. In September of 1996, the collaboration met in Mendoza, Argentina and selected the United States as the location for the northern site.

Thus far, the Pierre Auger Collaboration includes more than 250 scientists from Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam. These countries are highlighted in green in the above map.

These are the elected officers in the Collaboration:

• Spokesperson : Giorgio Matthiae (Rome)
• Co-Spokesperson : Paul Sommers (Penn State)
• Spokespersonae Emeriti : James W. Cronin (Chicago)
     and Alan A. Watson (Leeds)
• Collaboration Board Chair : Danilo Zavrtanik (Slovenia)
• Collaboration Board Co-Chair : Ron Shellard (Rio de Janeiro)

The Auger project management is hosted by Fermilab.

The analysis of data streaming in from Auger South has already led to new results which have been reported in scientific publications and conference proceedings.