Heather Ray 

UEC Statement:

High Energy Physics expertise benefits many aspects of our national well being.  
HEP graduates chose careers as professors, industrial researchers, financial 
consultants/analysists, and in medical research.  Fermilab, the premier U.S. 
collider laboratory, has historically been a bright source of young talent for 
many of these areas. 

Over the years, Fermilabs reputation as a strong and reliable research center has
become tarnished. US funding decisions have unilaterally terminated on-going 
international projects such as BTeV and the CDF silicon upgrade. 
Recent budget cuts have forced Fermilab to place staff physicists
on furlough and to schedule layoffs.  While these are not the 
fault of Fermilab or its administration, this track record does not bode well for the 
future of Fermilab as the host of a future international frontier experiment.

The key to Fermilabs future lies in securing a strong short-term and intermediate 
term physics program. This will retain a core expertise around which future programs
can be built.  In specific we need to 

- fight for contiuning suppport of the Tevatron experimental program, 
until the unambiguous observation or exclusion of the Higgs particle.  

- continue to develop and support the expanding neutrino program.  

- campaign for strong congressional and institutional support 
for the LHC Physics Center (LPC).  The LPC needs to be a focal point 
of US collider physics expertise, on which we will build the next frontier collider experiment.  

- engage the beams division in development of technologies toward hosting a next 
generation energy and intensity frontier experiment

Reliable and strong funding of this Fermilab program is imperative; 
it is the only way to ensure the future of Fermilab as a leading lab in particle physics 
research.

The future of Fermilab is now being shaped.  The next few years are critical.  The UEC will  
play a central role in developing and promoting the next generation science program at Fermilab. 
I have spent the past 9 years working on experiments at Fermilab.  Having spent 
equal amounts of time on CDF and MiniBooNE, I am in the unique position 
to be able to represent the both the neutrino and the collider communities.  
My diverse background and 
intense passion for a strong US based program will allow me to be a compelling advocate 
of the experimental community in these issues to the Fermilab directorate, to URA member 
institutions, and to congress.