On the 17th December 1964, Victor Frederick Weisskopf, who was strongly supporting diversity in CERN's scientific programme, gave the green light to a proposal for an isotope separator on-line with the CERN synchro-cyclotron, marking the beginning of ISOLDE's journey. The plan was to construct a first class facility to produce radioactive ion beams for a variety of experiments in nuclear and atomic physics, solid-state physics, materials science and life sciences. The first experiments took place in 1967 and the facility moved to the Proton-Synchrotron Booster in 1992, where it is currently located. ISOLDE is the longest running Radioactive Ion Beam (RIB) research facility worldwide, having been in operation for nearly fifty years.

ISOLDE's fifty year anniversary was celebrated with a special session of ISOLDE Workshop on the 17th December 2014. Although every year the users meet to present the results obtained recently in the facility as well as their plans and ideas for the future, this workshop included a special session. Past group leaders were invited to share their experiences and present the highlights of ISOLDE's history that spans half a century.

Former and present  ISOLDE group leaders and ISOLDE Coordinators: From left to right first row: T. Nilsson, G. Bollen, M. Kowalska, D. Forkel, M. Borge, B. Jonson, K. Riisager, in the second row: H. Ravn, H. Hass, H-J Kluge, O. Tengblad, A. Herlert and J. Aystö, P Van Duppen, P. Butler and Y. Blumenfeld in the third row.

Torleif Ericson, who in 1964 was the Chair of the Nuclear structure committee and recommended the on-line separator to the Nuclear Physics Research Committee (NPRC), recalled the special circumstances that led to the approval of the proposal for ISOLDE, although CERN's focus was on particle physics. 

Yearly ISOLDE Workshop and user meeting,  the 17 dec 2014.

Others discussed the construction of the facility, the technical challenges and science opportunities, and the transition to a 21^st century ISOLDE. Rolf Heuer, the CERN DG, offered some concluding remarks.

For more details see the workshop website https://indico.cern.ch/event/334117/. 

Read more articles about ISOLDE in the PH newsletter: http://ep-news.web.cern.ch/ph-experiments/sme/isolde