Good Morning!
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Mike Witherell
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Earlier, I wrote about the four most important annual laboratory reviews-all held within a period of 30 days this spring. Now that they are over, I want to report to you on the outcome. In brief, they went well. I cannot do justice to the results here, but I'll call out some of the main points.
The DOE Facility Operations Review, March 16-18, was the first of its kind for us. The review covered most of our operations: accelerators, research, business and finance, infrastructure and ES&H, and management. The accelerator subcommittee found that "priorities are properly established" and the "focus of the laboratory is consistent with priorities." The management subcommittee said "improvements in Run II operations are encouraging" and that "the Run II organization is quite effective."
The reviewers agreed with us that the main risks to future success are aging infrastructure and the effects of flat budgets. The committee gave special praise to safety practices throughout the laboratory and the "strong safety culture at FNAL."
The DOE Annual Program Review, March 23-25, reviewed all aspects of the scientific program, with an agenda similar to the URA Visiting Committee review two weeks earlier. The Program Review made use of the findings of the preceding reviews of Run II and of facility operations and affirmed many of the points they had made. The reviewers toured the NuMI project and gave credit to NuMI's leadership for bringing that difficult project to the present status, only months from completion. The committee also praised the research done by Fermilab staff, from theoretical physics and astrophysics to accelerator R&D.
Collectively, the review committees gave great credit to the dedication of the Fermilab staff and to the high quality of work across the laboratory-in other words, to you.
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