An-Najah University Establishes a Center First of its Kind in Palestine
On Wednesday, November 14, 2019, An-Najah National University, in collaboration with the Linear Accelerator Laboratory (LAL), and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), opened the Center for Excellence in High Energy Physics, making An-Najah the first university in Palestine to establish a center for data storage to be used globally.
The rapid advance of research in high energy physics requires quick dissemination of findings. Accordingly, the newly opened center is used to house an advanced database server with an internet accelerator, and associated components and infrastructure, such as storage systems needed for high-energy physics research.
The center which is the first of its kind in Palestine, is an information server that is dedicated to store and retrieve data as well as provide high availability and high performance by its server which is equal to 1000 advanced computers, and contains 1200 core units with up to 400TB storage capacity.
The Center can be used by researchers from different countries around the world. It is designed to help researchers solve the problems they face in terms of speed in data analysis and storage capacity.
The Center was inaugurated by Prof. Maher Natsheh, University President, Dr. Ahmed Bassalat, Chair of WISHEPP and staff member at An-Najah's Physics Department, and Prof. Achille Stocchi, Head of LAL and Co-Chair of WISHEPP, Dr. Martin Gastal, Representative of CERN Center, and Dr. Maen Ishtaiwi, Dean of the Faculty of Science.
Prof. Natsheh commented on the role of the new Center: "the newly established Center will undoubtedly contribute to a quantum leap in high energy physics research and will offer a unique service to Palestinian researchers."
The Center is one of the most important outputs and achievements of the Fourth Winter School of High Energy Physics.