Lab leaders stepping down

SLAC and the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, both US Department of Energy sites, are seeking new directors. Jonathan Dorfan, at SLAC for 30 years and director since 1999, will step down this fall. Christoph Leemann, at Jefferson Lab for 22 years and director since 2000, will stay until his successor is in place.

Under Dorfan’s guidance, and to the consternation of some, SLAC recently broadened its focus from particle physics to photon science and is building one of the world’s first x-ray free-electron lasers (see Physics Today, May 2005, page 26 ). To continue as director, Dorfan would have to sign on for 5 more years—for a total of 13 years in that role. “He feels that’s too long for the good of the lab,” SLAC spokesman Neil Calder said. SLAC’s annual budget is $300 million.

Leemann said being director of the $79 million-a-year Jefferson Lab in Newport News, Virginia, is demanding. “Deeply rewarding as this task was, it also required single-minded attention, demanded sacrifices, and imposed limitations on personal and private interests,” he said. “I want to step down while I still enjoy my good health.”

Leemann was instrumental in the design, technology choice, and construction of the lab’s Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility and prepared the facility for a 12-GeV upgrade that is now under way.