Interactions News Wire #38-07
5 July 2007
http://www.interactions.org
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Source: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Content: Press Release
Date Issued: 5 July 2007
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Contact:
Neil Calder, Director of Communications
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
1 (650) 926-8707
neil.calder@slac.stanford.edu
Image:
http://home.slac.stanford.edu/pressreleases/2007/20070705.htm
SLAC Announces New Director and Deputy Director of Particle and Particle
Astrophysics
Menlo Park, CA-Steven Kahn, the current Deputy Director of the Kavli
Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), has been named
the next Director of Particle and Particle Astrophysics (PPA) at the
Department of Energy's Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC).
David MacFarlane, currently the Assistant Director for Elementary Particle
Physics, will take on the role of Deputy Director of Particle and Particle
Astrophysics.
"This is clearly a very pressing time for the field and for SLAC, with
exciting questions to be answered and real strategy to be developed," said
Kahn. "I look forward to working on these challenges with David, while
also strengthening the growing overlap with the Laboratory's photon
science program in areas including accelerator science, detector R&D and
computing."
As Director of Particle and Particle Astrophysics, Kahn will oversee
SLAC's B-Factory Program (the PEP-II accelerator and the associated
detector, BaBar), the DOE-sponsored work performed at KIPAC, the
SLAC-based teams working on the Large Hadron Collider experiment ATLAS and
the International Linear Collider effort, advanced accelerator research
and non-accelerator particle physics programs.
In addition to serving as Director of PPA, Kahn retains the joint
faculty appointment at SLAC and in Stanford's Department of Physics that
he has held since coming to Stanford four years ago. Previous to that,
Kahn served as chair of the physics department at Columbia University,
where he oversaw both astrophysics and particle physics research. He has
also served on the Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee for the past four
years and was a very influential member of the committee that wrote the
High Energy Physics Advisory Panel's Quantum Universe report.
Kahn will step down from his current role at KIPAC to take the new
position, but will continue working as Deputy Director of the Large
Synoptic Survey Telescope project.
"SLAC is privileged to be able to appoint two such superb scientists as
Director and Deputy Director of the SLAC PPA Directorate," said Robin
Staffin, Associate Director for High Energy Physics in the DOE's Office of
Science. "Both have outstanding reputations in their specialties-Steve
Kahn in particle astrophysics and David MacFarlane in particle physics-but
in addition, they both have a good knowledge and experience of working in
the area where these two fields overlap."
Kahn will replace Persis Drell, who has served as Director of Particle and
Particle Astrophysics since 2002, on August 1, 2007. Drell will stay on as
Deputy Director of the Laboratory through the end of the year.
"Particle and Particle Astrophysics at SLAC has strong foundations thanks
to the exceptional leadership of Persis Drell during the five years she
has served as Director of PPA," said SLAC Director Jonathan Dorfan. "Steve
Kahn and David MacFarlane step up at the time when the science questions
have never been more compelling. Together they comprise an ideal team to
lead the Laboratory and its user community in these exciting times."
MacFarlane served as spokesperson for the BaBar collaboration between 2004
and 2006. He joined SLAC faculty in the fall of 2005 from the University
of California at San Diego.
"I look forward to working with Steve to help realize the full spectrum of
exciting science opportunities before us," said MacFarlane. "SLAC has a
uniquely talented scientific and technical staff, who have been the key to
past discoveries in accelerator science and particle physics and who will
continue to be the foundation for the future program."