NIKHEF appoints Karel Gaemers as new director
Karel Gaemers has been appointed director ad interim of NIKHEF, the Dutch national institute for subatomic physics, as of 1 January 2004. Gaemers has been full professor in theoretical physics at the University of Amsterdam since 1980, and served as scientific director of the high-energy physics section of NIKHEF between 1989 and 1995. He was a member of CERN's scientific policy committee between 1996 and 2002, and has also been a member of the extended scientific councils of DESY and RECFA (Restricted ECFA), and of the executive committee of the European Physical Society. Former NIKHEF director Jos Engelen has moved on to CERN to become chief scientific officer (see "CERN Council rings the changes").
DESY director-general stays in office for another five years...
Albrecht Wagner, the chairman of the board of directors of the DESY research centre, will officiate for a further five years after the completion of his first term of office in July 2004. This decision was made by the Administrative Council of the research centre at its meeting on 4 December 2003, and was on the basis of a recommendation by the DESY Scientific Council.
Wagner has worked on experiments at DESY's DORIS and PETRA storage rings, and at CERN. In 1991 he took up a post as professor of experimental physics at the University of Hamburg and became the research director of DESY. Wagner took over as the chair of the DESY board of directors in July 1999.
...while Henning continues at GSI...
The governmental supervisory board of the German heavy-ion research centre, GSI (Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung mbH) Darmstadt, has extended the term of office of Walter Henning as scientific director until 31 March 2007. Henning has held this position since 1 October 1999, during which time the GSI Future Project was proposed and approved. In this project a double-ring facility of 1100 m circumference will be built by 2012, followed by a system of cooler-storage rings and various experimental halls. The project is expected to cost &Euro;675 million and will be funded by the German federal government and the state of Hesse. Promoting the Future Project while minimizing interference with existing experiments and commissioning the therapy accelerator at the University Hospital, Heidelberg, are Henning's main goals for the coming term.
...and Jefferson Lab announces Thomas as the new head of its Theory Group
Anthony (Tony) Thomas has accepted the position of chief scientist and head of the Theory Group at Jefferson Lab. Thomas brings 30 years of experience in nuclear and particle physics to Jefferson Lab, where he will lead an internationally recognized theory group. His interests include chiral symmetry, lattice QCD, quark models, structure functions, nuclear forces, symmetries and symmetry breaking. Thomas comes to Jefferson Lab from a position as Elder Professor of Physics - the chair first held by William Henry Bragg - in the Department of Physics and Mathematical Physics at the University of Adelaide in South Australia. He is also director of the Special Research Centre for the Subatomic Structure of Matter and the National Institute for Theoretical Physics.