Draft:British Cryogenics Council

The British Cryogenics Council (BCC) is an independent professional association headquartered in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. Founded in 1967 at the Royal Society,  the BCC promotes knowledge and interest in Cryogenics. The inaugural speech was given by Kurt Mendelssohn on The Future of Cryogenics in Industry.

Membership
The BCC has over 100 corporate members consisting of cryogenic and related suppliers, research facilities and universities.

Activities
The BCC shares information via their website, newsletters, LinkedIn forum, and a variety of training courses. The council also supports the British Cryogenics Cluster annual networking event and CryoUsers bi-annual forum for technicians and engineers working with helium liquefaction and cryogenics.

The BCC is a member of the Cryogenics Society of Europe (CSE) and an International Affiliate of the Cryogenic Society of America.

Since 1970, the BCC has periodically published a safety manual to provide a guide to good practice. Most recently, the 5th edition of the manual was published in January 2018.

Management
Management of the British Cryogenics Council is vested in the Executive Committee, which normally meets twice a year. A small Management Committee meets frequently to ensure the smooth running of the Council between meetings of the Executive Committee.

The Executive Committee is assisted by a Secretarial Assistant who also produces the quarterly newsletter.

Awards
The BCC awards The Harry Jones Prize annually. The prize is awarded for research in the area of experimental applied science by undergraduate students who have completed a research project in their final year, or postgraduate students who have completed their Master’s research project or Doctoral thesis in the preceding 24 months. A significant component of the research must include Cryogenics. The prize is awarded by the Chair of the British Cryogenics Council after considering the recommendation by the supervisor and the quality and relevance of the student’s research.

The prize is named in memory of Harry Jones, late Professor of Condensed Matter Physics at the Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford University. Prof Jones was recognised as a leading expert for accurate measurements of the critical current density (Jc(B,T)) and induced resistive transition (IRT) of both low temperature and high temperature superconductors and, from 2005, served for almost a decade as Chairman of the BCC.