The University of California Board of Regents has chosen Michael Witherell to lead Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Witherell was director of Fermilab from 1999 to 2005. Under his leadership, Fermilab scientists discovered the tau neutrino, began running the Tevatron collider at record luminosity, began construction on the NuMI beamline and launched MINOS, Fermilab’s first long-distance neutrino experiment. He was awarded the Secretary of Energy’s Gold Award, the U.S. Department of Energy’s highest honorary award, in October 2004.
Witherell has remained at the forefront of physics since his tenure at Fermilab. He is now a member of the LUX and LZ dark matter experiments, which will soon share space with the DUNE experiment at the Sanford Underground Research Facility.