Particle Accelerator Corp. was started in 1991 by the principal inventors, designers and operational experts of the first proton therapy accelerator: the Loma Linda University Proton Therapy Synchrotron, which was designed, built, and commissioned at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The four company principals included Dr. Frank Cole, who is one of the holders of the Loma Linda Synchrotron patent, Dr. Arlene Lennox, former head of both the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Neutron Therapy Facility, and the radiation physics department at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Hospital, and Dr. Donald Young, the designer and former head of the Fermilab Linac. Dr. Frederick Mills, another holder of the Loma Linda patents, one of the inventors of both the synchrotron light source and the first Fixed Field Alternating Gradient accelerators (FFAG), remains active in the field and serves as Vice President for the Particle Accelerator Corporation. The early work of P.A.C. focused primarily on medical applications, especially accelerators to produce heavy-particle beams for cancer therapy. Direct experience as an organization included completion of a conceptual plan of a neutron-therapy and isotope-production facility for Rush Presbyterian-St. Lukes in Chicago and completion of a conceptual design of a proton-therapy facility for the Superconducting Supercollider for the Southwest Medical Center of the University of Texas, including an estimate of the fabrication, installation and personnel costs to build the system. An upgrade involving optics and slow spill design followed by hardware fabrication of sextupole correctors was a recent contribution to the stability and increased current for the Loma Linda Proton Accelerator.

The tradition of promoting advanced accelerator design concepts continues today and the top innovative accelerator physicists have been recruited by Particle Accelerator Corporation from both national laboratories such as Fermilab and from university environments, such as the Beam Physics Group at Michigan State University. Further, as a company, we continue an established relationship with national accelerator laboratories, mainly Fermilab and Argonne National Laboratory, and, in recent years, have cultivated collaborative ties to international accelerator laboratories, including Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the U.K. and TRIUMF in Canada. Through this extensive network of contacts, Particle Accelerator Corporation can recruit scientists and engineers as consultants bringing a combined expertise to address almost any accelerator problem.