Thom Mason, director of the Spallation Neutron Source at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, said particle accelerators have a number of scientific applications.
"These are machines that range from the really big accelerators used to study high energy physics to accelerators like the Spallation Neutron Source or synchrotrons that are used in materials science, to accelerators that are used in medical applications in the production of isotopes," Mason said.
Particle accelerator technology crosses a broad range of science disciplines.
"You have physicists, electrical engineers, materials science issues and computational science issues in terms of understanding the machines," Mason said. "You need big teams with a lot of different expertise to pull together something on the scale of a major accelerator project."
There will be fun events Wednesday night, including a high school science fair, children's activities and string band.
The conference is co-sponsored by ORNL and the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Virginia.
ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy.