Lia Merminga, an internationally renowned physicist and scientific leader, has been appointed to lead the U.S.’ premier particle physics and accelerator lab, effective April 18. Merminga will be the seventh director of Fermilab and the first woman to serve in the role.
The career of Elaine McCluskey, who most recently served as project manager constructing the future facility for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, has had a lasting impact.
Kurt Vetter succeeds Elaine McCluskey as the new project manager. He joins the collaboration on April 4.
In her new position, Zeller assumes responsibility for realizing the set of three primary detector systems developed by the DUNE collaboration at Fermilab.
From the Rapid City Journal, January 20, 2022: A 2021 economic study done for SURF and the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority shows the large economic impacts in advancing South Dakota’s economy. The impacts include job creation, household earnings, and spending for activities and experiments at SURF and the LBNF/DUNE. The partnership with Fermilab to construct and operate part of the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility at SURF will result in significant spending and employment in South Dakota in the coming decades.
For Fermilab, 2021 was a momentous year that included major science results, construction progress, record-setting equipment, and more. Get a quick recap of some 2021 milestones in this video, which features drone and timelapse footage from around the lab.
From Rapid City Journal-Our Northern Hills, November 4, 2021: Excavation crews at the underground site of DUNE reached an important milestone. They completed the careful excavation of the ventilation shaft with just one drill bit during the entire four-and-a-half-month process. Crews also uncovered a 1-1/2 foot thick chunk of quartz crystal during the process that miraculously was not damaged by the reamer head, nor by the 300-foot fall it sustained, marking it a gem of the milestone.
LBNF/DUNE-US and Mu2e will see leadership changes in November.
From PBS, October 6, 9:00 pm CT: Tune in to the PBS premiere of Particles Unknown-the hunt for the universe’s most common yet elusive particle, this Wednesday on your local PBS channel. Starting with Ray Davis’ quest for neutrinos that began in 1965, Nova explores Fermilab’s search for sterile neutrinos and interviews Sam Zeller and Angela Fava from the Neutrino Division. Check your local PBS station programming to confirm the date and time of Particles Unknown.
In her new role on the LBNF/DUNE-US project, Mary Convery will oversee the completion of the far site conventional facilities and the near site primary and neutrino beamlines and supporting conventional facilities.