Faces and places (page 2)

Oddone chosen as Fermilab's next director...

Officials of the Universities Research Association, the consortium of universities that operates the US Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, have announced the appointment of Pier Oddone as the laboratory's fifth director. He will succeed the current director, Michael Witherell, on 1 July.

Pier Oddone

Oddone is at present deputy director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and is well known as the inventor of the asymmetric B-factory, for which he has been awarded the 2005 Panofsky Prize of the American Physical Society (see CERN Courier December 2004 p30).

Witherell, in turn, is to become vice-chancellor for research at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was recently honoured by Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham with the Secretary's Gold Award "for outstanding leadership combining excellence in science with excellence in safety" during his tenure as Fermilab's director since 1999.

Oddone says he is looking forward to the opportunity to serve as Fermilab's director at a key moment for the field of high-energy physics and for the laboratory. "We are living in a time of remarkable opportunity for particle physics. The next few years will bring a revolution in our understanding of the universe. As one of the world's great physics laboratories, Fermilab will make vital contributions to the discoveries ahead. I am excited and honoured to lead this unique laboratory during such an extraordinary era."

...while Kolb will direct new Center for Particle Astrophysics

A new centre to provide a focus for efforts in particle astrophysics is to be established at Fermilab, with cosmologist Edward "Rocky" Kolb of Fermilab and the University of Chicago as director. The Center for Particle Astrophysics will bring together the Theoretical and Experimental Astrophysics Groups and will also encompass existing projects, including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory, as well as proposed projects, including the SuperNova Acceleration Probe to study dark energy as part of the Joint Dark Energy Mission.

Edward "Rocky" Kolb

Following his appointment, which was made public on 1 November, Kolb announced that the Center for Particle Astrophysics will also support a graduate student for a year of work and study at Fermilab. The Brinson Pre-Doctoral Fellowship will be funded by The Brinson Foundation of Chicago, whose interests in scientific research include astrophysics and cosmology as well as geophysics and medical research. The Brinson Foundation lists Chicago's Adler Planetarium among its many annual grants. The Fellowship will be offered to students in the final year of their doctoral studies, who would work alongside a member of a Fermilab project.

Kolb noted that, while Fermilab is not specifically an educational institution, the opportunity to train "the stars of the future" in particle astrophysics is invaluable. "Particle cosmology is a reasonably new field," he said. "Establishing this world-class centre means we can attract future leaders with the chance to further their career and their education, and to have an impact on the field for many years to come."