John Womersley

John WomersleyJohn Womersley

22 July 2005

John Womersley

Where have I been?Where have I been?

U of FloridaPostdoc 1986-9

Florida StateAssistant Professor 1989-92

FermilabScientist 1994 -

SSCScientist 1992-3

Torquayb. 1962

CambridgeB.A. 1983

OxfordD.Phil. 1986

CERNEMC experiment1983-86

DOEScientific Advisor 2005

RAL2005 -

John Womersley

What have I done?What have I done?

• Scientific Advisor at DOE– Planning the US HEP program

• Co-spokesperson of DØ, 1999-2004– Evolved the collaboration from one mainly of US groups to

50% non-US, with major involvement from Europe– Built, installed, commissioned detector for Run II– Period of Tevatron luminosity problems, cancellation of

silicon detector upgrade …– … to a strong physics program now

• top quark • b-physics• most sensitive searches for supersymmetry, new gauge

bosons, extra dimensions, etc.

John Womersley

What have I done? (2)What have I done? (2)

• Physics– Photons– Gauge mediated SUSY– Technicolor (including Phenomenology, PDG review)

• US physics coordinator for CMS 1996-99– US CMS Tier I centre

• Fermilab Long Range Planning committee– LHC physics centre

• Technical– Liquid argon calorimetry– Computing

• Education– Students, summer schools, undergraduate teaching

• Outreach and communication– Quantum Universe report, Symmetry magazine– Washington briefings

John Womersley

My Management Style in DØMy Management Style in DØ

• Leadership of a big experiment could easily take > 24 hours per day

• Need to maintain familiarity with everything, while understanding what to concentrate on

1. Physics– Physics is our justification and our passion– Need to be an effective advocate for the physics program– Need to set priorities based on the physics

2. People– Big projects are all about people and about mutual trust– Relationships cannot be delegated– Literally no door on my office!

John Womersley

Why am I here?Why am I here?

• Sense that UK particle physics is emerging from a long dark night

• The UK is the world’s fourth largest economy– it should aim to play a commensurate role in discovery-

oriented science

• Experience in HEP shows smaller universities/laboratories/nations can exert relatively large influence through the leverage of– Excellent people– … with vision and ambition– … the ability to express this– … who can build coalitions or collaborations

We should strive to do this both within CERN and in the worldwide community

John Womersley

CCLRC’s roleCCLRC’s role

• National laboratories (anywhere) exist to provide infrastructure and support for large projects – Enables projects too large for universities– Enables retention of key expertise– Enables some level of more speculative R&D

• I believe that this mission requires that the laboratories also flourish as centres of scientific thought– A place that the best physicists would want to work at– A centre of gravity for the national program

• Suggestion: draw inspiration from successful models– One I am familiar with is Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

(a similar size effort in terms of money and people) • Technical excellence and facilities• Scientific excellence, the best people, leadership• (and also a willingness to prioritize)

John Womersley

Hence at RAL …Hence at RAL …

• Want to build a national centre of gravity for particle physics – Complements the universities– Ensures continued technical excellence and facilities

• detector building, operations, computing, etc.– Is able to attract the best physicists worldwide– Show leadership in LHC operations and physics

• LHC experiments are our “ships of the line”– Show leadership in new initiatives

• I have some ideas– Joint positions for university faculty have worked well

• Try to set up partnerships/joint appointments– Some kind of junior fellowships to attract best young

physicists?

• PPARC and CCLRC have agreed to fund two new RA positions as part of my hire, targeted at new initiatives

John Womersley

What I want to doWhat I want to do

• The arrival of a new director is an opportunity to rethink– What are we doing? For who? – What are we good at? What could we be better at? – Are we properly organized? – Where does our staffing need to be strengthened?

• Also an opportunity to re-invent external connections– Obviously PPARC– Also the universities, the lab, the two new accelerator

institutes…

• Matches the need to think about the 2006-11 period for the next PPARC grants submission – A different era – new challenges, new opportunities

• I have some ideas, but I am willing to consider everything

• Want to listen first (though not forever) – I’d like to hear from you!

John Womersley

Words to live byWords to live by

• “More excellence, more ambition”

• “The fun here will be to see just how good we can become”