Historical retrospect

The 6 MV tandem van-de-Graaff accelerator was installed at the Hönggerberg Campus of ETH Zurich in 1963 by Prof. P. Marmier for basic research in nuclear physics.

In 1979, a research program for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) was initiated by Prof. W. Wölfli fully dedicated to applied research in 1985 jointly operating under PSI and ETH. At PSI, the facility had been integrated into the Division TEM (Particles and Matter) as the Laboratory for Ion Beam Physics, while at ETH the laboratory was part of the Institute of Particle Physics.

Prof. M. Suter headed the joint PSI/ETH laboratory from 1992 to 2008. Within these years, a versatile materials science (MS) program was established and the ground stone for the development of compact AMS instrumentation was laid.

With Prof. Suter's retirement in 2008, a new organizational structure was formed by fully integrating the laboratory into ETH with Prof. H.-A. Synal as the new head of the laboratory. As a national and international center of competence for AMS and MS, LIP resembles a research platform associated with the ETH Physics Department and is linked to the Institute of Particle Physics. A curatorial board with members of the LIP partner organizations (D-ERDW, PSI, Empa, Eawag, and WSL) was founded to support LIP activities.