Fermilab DirectorNigel Lockyer Happy new year, everyone. Thanks to all those who “enjoyed” working over the holidays to keep lab operations running smoothly, the accelerator complex running, and the experiments taking data. Quiet is good when you are an experimenter. Particular kudos go to the accelerator team, who not only kept the machines up and running but began slip stacking tests in the Recycler that will pave the way toward ever higher beam power, hopefully 400 kilowatts, in 2015. For…
Nigel Lockyer
Nigel Lockyer is the Fermilab director.
Fermilab DirectorNigel Lockyer Fermilab has always been an international laboratory. With the proposed Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility based here at Fermilab, we’re about to enter a bold new era of global cooperation. This Friday, Dec. 12, Fermilab will host the second of two open meetings about LBNF. These meetings are a big step toward forming a strong collaboration with partners across the globe, with the goal of building the best neutrino experiment of its kind in the world. Last Friday, the…
Fermilab DirectorNigel Lockyer Fermilab has long enjoyed a strong and positive relationship with the local community. Nevertheless, we are always looking for new ways to strengthen that relationship. Last Tuesday night, we invited about a hundred leaders from our local community to the laboratory for an event called the Future of Fermilab Address and Reception. Attendees included the mayors of Warrenville and Batavia, aldermen, other elected officials from many of the lab’s neighboring towns and counties, school board members, educators…
Fermilab DirectorNigel Lockyer Newly confirmed Deputy Secretary of the Department of Energy Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall visited Fermilab last Thursday afternoon. After meeting with several DOE Early Career Research awardees, she addressed employees and users during an all-hands meeting. During her remarks, she stressed DOE’s support of the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility and strengthening and expanding international partnerships. She visited the superconducting radio-frequency technology test facility at NML, where she learned about our world-leading technology for the next generation of particle accelerators….
Fermilab DirectorNigel Lockyer In continued alignment with goals laid out in the P5 report, we’re making progress on our newest muon experiment, Mu2e. A four-day DOE Critical Decision 2/3b review of the experiment concluded Friday. The review went extremely well and validated the design, technical progress, and the cost and schedule of the project. The reviewers praised the depth and breadth of our staff’s excellent technical work and preparation. Official sign-off for CD-2/3b is expected in the next several months,…
Fermilab DirectorNigel Lockyer Last week we joined the NOvA collaboration in celebrating the culmination of nearly a decade of hard work. Five years after shovels were first put into the ground and two years after construction began in earnest on the far detector in Minnesota, both the near and far detectors of NOvA are complete. And with CD-4 approval from the Department of Energy in place, the experiment has truly begun. Many thanks go to everyone who was involved along…
Fermilab DirectorNigel Lockyer The new west remote operations center, or ROC West, is open for business in Wilson Hall. Construction, which began in March, is on schedule and nearly complete. A few details remain, including restoring the stairway to the ground floor over the next few weeks. Supporting the P5 plan, ROC West will serve as a centralized hub for scientists who work on Fermilab’s neutrino and muon experiments (LBNF, MicroBooNE, MINERvA, MiniBooNE, MINOS, Mu2e, Muon g-2 and NOvA), similar…
Fermilab DirectorNigel Lockyer Groucho Marx famously remarked that he would not join a club that would have him as a member. Despite that characteristically flippant response, he was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild and a prominent member of several other clubs. Groucho understood that he needed an organization that could speak for professionals within his community and for his field as a whole. Professional organizations play an important role for many of us, including scientists, engineers, computing…
Fermilab DirectorNigel Lockyer Fermilab is poised to host a world-leading accelerator-based neutrino program and to deliver on several key laboratory initiatives such as PIP-II, muon and cosmic experiments and new particle searches at the LHC. One of the ways we can ensure our success is to focus on working smarter. Over the past several years, Fermilab introduced and implemented the human performance improvement (HPI) process in many key areas of the lab to improve efficiency, productivity, quality and safety. In…
Fermilab DirectorNigel Lockyer Fermi Research Alliance LLC, the operator of Fermilab for the U.S. Department of Energy and a partnership between the University of Chicago and Universities Research Association, is reorganizing its board of directors this fall to best support the laboratory as it shapes its future as a world-leading scientific institution, working in close partnership with the scientific community to ensure a bright future for U.S. particle physics. The FRA Board provides strategic guidance, oversight, direction and advice to…