About Fermilab

Norbert Holtkamp

Laboratory Director

Norbert Holtkamp is the Director of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

He brings decades of leadership experience in large-scale scientific infrastructure, accelerator science and laboratory operations, with a strong record of delivering complex projects, strengthening operational performance and advancing global scientific collaboration.

Prior to being named as Fermilab Director in January 2026, Holtkamp served as Deputy Laboratory Director at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (2014-2022). In this role, he oversaw the laboratory's enterprise risk portfolio, including more than $2.5 billion in construction activities. He led the development of multi-laboratory partnerships for major Department of Energy (DOE) and National Science Foundation (NSF) initiatives and served as Project Director for the $1.1 billion LCLS-II X-ray free-electron laser, a flagship facility delivered through a collaboration of five U.S. national laboratories.

He joined SLAC in 2010 as Associate Laboratory Director for the Accelerator Directorate and is a professor of particle physics and astrophysics and of photon science at SLAC and Stanford University. He later served as a Senior Fellow (courtesy) at the Hoover Institution.

From 2006 to 2010, Holtkamp was Principal Deputy Director General of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) Organization, where he was responsible for the technical management of one of the world's largest and most complex scientific construction projects-an experimental tokamak fusion reactor involving seven international partners.

Earlier in his career, he was Director of the Accelerator Systems Division for the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, leading the design and construction of the accelerator through a multi-laboratory collaboration. For this work, he received the Gersh Budker Prize from the European Physical Society. He also held senior leadership roles at DESY in Hamburg, Germany, overseeing injector linac operations and directing accelerator research and development programs.

Holtkamp previously worked at Fermilab from 1998 to 2001, contributing to the commissioning of the Main Injector and leading a multi-laboratory study on an intense neutrino source based on a muon storage ring. His return to Fermilab comes at a pivotal moment as the laboratory advances the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility/Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (LBNF/DUNE) and the Proton Improvement Plan-II (PIP-II), the largest scientific endeavor in the laboratory's history.

Holtkamp has served on numerous DOE and NSF review committees and is a recognized advocate for international scientific collaboration. He holds the equivalent of a master's degree in physics from the University of Berlin and a Ph.D. in physics from the Technical University of Darmstadt.