Fermilab Today

Building the world's most powerful long-baseline neutrino experiment will be a project unlike any Fermilab has led to date. It will bring together numerous significant research contributions from partners around the globe to construct the largest international DOE research facility ever hosted on U.S. soil.

The importance of the project led to the recent creation of a second deputy director position at Fermilab. And now, as of July 20, the role is filled: Chris Mossey is the new deputy director for the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility. He joins Nigel Lockyer, Joe Lykken and Tim Meyer as a member of the directorate team.

A retired and decorated rear admiral in the United States Navy, Mossey has decades of experience overseeing the effective, sustainable construction of large and complex facilities. Although the goals of LBNF are very different from the facilities projects of his Navy career, Mossey sees similarities between the two organizations.

"I am very excited to be joining Fermilab," Mossey said. "What I enjoyed about the Navy was that I got to work with a dedicated group of people doing meaningful work. Those are the same reasons that I am looking forward to joining Fermilab: talented and dedicated people doing important work. I am really fortunate to be a part of this team."

Construction of LBNF will involve building several large underground detectors at two sites 800 miles apart for the future Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. At the helm of this prodigious undertaking, Mossey will work to establish and maintain connections between the international partners, coordinate all aspects of construction, and deliver the project safely, on budget and on schedule.

"I am sure I have only an inkling of what to expect," he said. "It's a very ambitious project but one that many extraordinary people have been laying critical groundwork for over many years."

Along with Deputy Director Lykken, Mossey will also act as a champion for Fermilab's neutrino program.

"I look forward to being at a place where science is the area of focus, where the mission is no less than better understanding the universe, and working with the people who help advance that understanding," he said.

As commander of the U.S. Navy's Naval Facilities Engineering Council, Mossey led a global organization of 19,000 people executing Navy construction and facility programs that provided more than $12 billion in annual facilities engineering, construction and maintenance services. Mossey most recently worked as a consultant with the planning firm Marstel Day.

"Chris's work building complex facilities is highly respected, and he brings a wealth of experience to Fermilab," said Fermilab Director Nigel Lockyer. "We are happy that he is joining us in building the future of U.S. particle physics, and we are fortunate that he will be an ambassador for us to the world."

—Deb Sebastian and Leah Hesla

In Brief

Fermilab posts latest Physics Advisory Committee report

Fermilab has released the latest report from the committee that advises laboratory leaders on the direction of the laboratory's future experiments and programs. The charge to the Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee and its recommendations are now available on the PAC Web page.

The Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee met from June 22-25 to look at the planned evolution of the laboratory program and consider new initiatives. The results of that meeting are captured in the PAC report.

The PAC is a major source of advice to the director about the future direction of Fermilab's experiments and programs. Ever since Fermilab's early days, the PAC's recommendations and comments have offered insight into opportunities and issues important to members of the laboratory community. The PAC is composed of senior scientists from universities and high-energy physics laboratories in the United States and abroad.

In the News

Heavy metal upgrade to detect antimatter

From The Guardian, July 21, 2015

Heavy metal is being added to one of the worlds largest particle physics experiments to allow it to see antimatter for the first time. For years the Super Kamiokande neutrino observatory has been a world leader in the field of neutrino particle physics. Last week the international collaboration of scientists who run the experiment announced that in 2016/2017, for the first time in over a decade, the experiment's ultrasensitive detector will be shut down for an upgrade.

From the Particle Physics Division

Magnetic mission of the Particle Physics Division

Bob Tschirhart

Bob Tschirhart, deputy head of the Particle Physics Division, wrote this column.

The Particle Physics Division is deep in magnetic successes and challenges. Our science goals call for MRI-medical-quality magnets as wide as a basketball court for the Muon g-2 experiment and magnets of unprecedented strength and size that must operate in harsh radiation environments for the Mu2e experiment.

After an intense campaign that culminated in June, the Muon g-2 team established a clear path to full performance and initially cooled the 50-foot-wide electromagnet ring down to the low temperatures required for superconductivity. In parallel, the Mu2e magnet teams are working closely with industry and have recently operated prototype magnets at high performance, which bodes well for this Fermilab-industry partnership. Kudos to the Muon g-2 and Mu2e teams, which span the expertise of the Accelerator, Particle Physics and Technical divisions, for commissioning and developing these amazing superconducting magnets!

Meanwhile at CERN, the Large Hadron Collider is back in operation at twice the collision energy of the first run, which discovered the Higgs boson. The Particle Physics Division is engaged in many aspects of the CMS experiment, and we are on the edge of our seats in anticipation of Run II. The early CMS commissioning data for Run II is looking great. The heart of the CMS detector is a large and very powerful superconducting magnet that is currently dealing with an infection of contaminants in the liquid helium, which is the life-blood of superconducting magnets. At these very low temperatures and high performance, even a tiny whiff of air is enough to cause a fever that hampers long-term operation of the magnet. CERN and CMS are working day and night to attack this contamination so that CMS and the worldwide program can optimally access the science promise of Run II.

Magnets here, magnets there. The future of particle physics worldwide depends on ultracold "cryogenic" science and technologies critical to magnets, accelerator systems for the LCLS-II project and the PIP-II initiative, and detectors for neutrino science and cosmic science. If you flip through college catalogs, you will find precious few offering degrees in cryogenic science and technologies. Fermilab has a responsibility to U.S. particle physics to mentor and train junior engineers and technical staff in the exciting discipline of cryogenic science and technology. We are fortunate to have excellent senior engineers and technologists labwide who can serve the community in this way.

Particle Physics Division research in CMS, cosmic surveys, cosmic dark matter searches, detector R&D, muon science and, yes, theoretical physics depends critically on continued excellence in cryogenic science and technologies. We must achieve this with constrained budgets in the context of the larger vision of a flagship neutrino program. We can achieve this through close collaboration throughout the laboratory, the U.S. program and the broader international community. Doing so will continue to grow the magnetic personality of Fermilab.

In Brief

Office of the CRO meeting today at 10 a.m. in Ramsey

Joe Lykken will hold an all-Office-of-the-CRO meeting today from 10 to 11 a.m. in Ramsey Auditorium. If you work in one of the following departments, please plan to attend: Center for Particle Astrophysics, CMS Center, Neutrino Division, Particle Physics Division.

Photo of the Day

Capturing Saturn

Gregory Cisko used a Celestron 8SE telescope and a Celestron Skyris 132C video color camera to take this picture of Saturn. The image was made from nine videos, each about 10 seconds long. The image is made from stacking the 250 best frames from the 640-frame movie. Photo: Gregory Cisko, CCD

Safety Update

ESH&Q weekly report, July 21

This week's safety report, compiled by the Fermilab ESH&Q Section, contains two incidents.

An employee's right little finger was injured while she was placing a desktop computer onto a pallet. Her finger contacted the plastic portion of a printed circuit board, causing a laceration. She received first-aid treatment.

An employee felt a sting on the back of his neck. He slapped at it and thought it was a wasp or bee. This is a pending claim.

See the full report.