History of VERTEX

The International Workshop of Vertex Detectors is a Conference that was inaugurated in 1992 in Finland. Initially it consisted of a few members of the DELPHI and OPAL Collaborations at CERN. Following the success of the first meeting, the Workshop expanded its programme and scope leading to participants from several countries. Ever since it was held in several locations worldwide, Slovenia (1993), USA (1994), Israel (1995), Italy (1996), Brazil(1997), Greece (1998), The Netherlands (1999), USA (2000), Switzerland (2001), USA (2002), United Kingdom (2003), Italy (2004). In 1996 the International Advisory Committee was formed and proceedings have been published in the referred journal Nuclear Instrumentation and Methods A. Since its early stages the Workshop has played a prominent role in the field of silicon detector applications for High Energy Physics, biomedical and space applications. The programme emphasizes on topics directly related to vertex detectors: vertex detectors at present experiments, new vertex detector projects, R&D for future vertex detectors, radiation hardness of detectors and R&D on new materials, radiation hardness of integrated readout electronics, DAQ and trigger architecture for vertex detectors, vertexing algorithms and performances and applications of vertexing instrumentation to other fields. Additional talks usually available for new and innovative ideas and applications. A small number of talks is reserved for space and biomedical applications. One of the important aspects of the workshop is to encourage participation of promising young physicists who will then have the opportunity to interact with experts in the field for about week with time for discussions. For that reason the workshop organizers try to limit the number of participants so that talks are longer and interactions can actually occur.