ERC Consolidator Grant for Thomas Cocolios

We are pleased to announce that Prof Thomas Elias Cocolios (KU Leuven), PRISMAP Dissemination Manager and Leader on Education & Documentation, is among this year's recipients of an ERC Consolidator Grant. 

How does the interaction within atomic nuclei create the complex structure of atoms? Are there limits to the number of protons or neutrons in an atomic nucleus? How and where in the universe are the chemical elements produced?

Professor Thomas Elias Cocolios's NSHAPE project will attempt to answer these key questions by testing the most advanced nuclear models with highly sensitive, high-resolution and hyper-accurate measurements of the shape of atomic nuclei. The result will be a better understanding of the strong forces at play in the nucleus.

In particular, NSHAPE will investigate octupole-deformed nuclei (which are pear-shaped, with more matter on one side than the other) and proton-unbound systems (the nuclear force cannot hold the last proton any longer).

NSHAPE will use similar techniques to those employed in PRISMAP to produce the radioisotopes that will be studied. The experimental work will take place on the premises of other PRISMAP Consortium Members, namely CERN, GANIL, and PSI.