Physics and Astronomy Colloquium

There is a consensus among the worldwide high energy physics community that a TeV scale linear electron positron collider should be the highest priority long term goal for the field. This next great particle accelerator, together with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, will enable a comprehensive exploration of the TeV energy scale where many of the new phenomena we seek, like supersymmetry or possibly even extra dimensions could reveal themselves. The international community has chosen the superconducting rf technology to be the basis of the international linear collider final design, in anticipation of a construction project to begin in about 2012. A global design effort has been created to guide the R&D and technical design toward construction of the ILC. In this presentation, I will discuss the science motivation, the technology, and will review recent progress and plans toward this exciting future international facility.