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May
May 9,
2008
From the Director: Decision Making at SLAC
The foundations of effective management include making decisions in a timely fashion, managing risk, and establishing and balancing priorities. Those are the major requirements of any manager's job. As our organization becomes more complex, it becomes more difficult to make decisions efficiently and effectively—but doing this is essential if we are to keep the organization moving forward.
May 2,
2008
From the Director: Return of the Scientific Policy Committee
From the laboratory's inception, Stanford University has managed SLAC with the goals of enhancing the science research; supporting the Department of Energy's science mission; and contributing to the education of the students and postdocs of Stanford University and other academic institutions.
April
April 25,
2008
From the Director: Planning the Future
As a laboratory, we must constantly look toward our future.
April 18,
2008
From the Director: The Laboratory Vision, Mission and Core Values
On November 14, I posted a draft version of the laboratory Vision, Mission and Core Values for the SLAC community to read and comment upon. Many in the SLAC community took the time to consider this draft in detail, and I received a substantial number of responses.
April 11,
2008
From the Director: Turning the Page
At 12:43 p.m. on Monday the B Factory completed the program of delivering physics data to BaBar. In the remaining few hours of the day, the PEP-II team continued to explore the limits of accelerator physics by pushing the low-energy beam current to a new world-record of 3.213 A.
April 4,
2008
From the Director of the Photon Science Directorate: Photon Science at SLAC–What, Why and Where to?
SLAC's outstanding reputation is built upon seminal scientific discovery, much of it enabled and facilitated by advanced accelerator-based tools for which SLAC has so often pioneered new ground.
March
March 28,
2008
From the Director: SII Update
The SLAC Improvement Initiative (SII) is now six months old. Although the budgetary turmoil and the accompanying layoffs slowed our progress as we were distracted by the immediate crisis at hand, SII has continued to move forward and there are concrete improvement projects underway.
March 21,
2008
From the Director: Visit to Washington, D.C.
On March 13th, I had the honor, along with Steven Chu (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Director), Thom Mason (Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director) and Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, of meeting with the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, in her Capitol Hill office.
March 14,
2008
From the Director: SLAC, the Site Office and Stanford University
Many things have changed at this lab in the past six months, but one of the more profound changes has been in the relationship between the laboratory, the Department of Energy Stanford Site Office and Stanford University, which manages the contract to operate the lab for the Department of Energy.
March 7,
2008
From the Director: Communication
Over the past several months, the ALDs and I have worked to refine the "One Lab" vision. Where we now have hard working staff but perhaps Balkanized efforts, we look to a future with a unified and aligned team and a strong sense of community between all the scientific efforts at the lab.
February
February 29,
2008
From the Director: Comments on Charting the Path Forward for Particle Physics
Last week, the High Energy Physics Particle Physics Project
Prioritization Panel (P5) visited SLAC. P5 is charged with identifying and
evaluating the scientific opportunities and options that can be pursued at
different funding levels for the field of Particle Physics, and with providing
advice on a new 10-year plan for U.S. particle physics. In brief remarks to the
panel, I offered some personal views based on my unusual vantage point; I am a
particle physicist quasi particle astrophysicist who is lab director of a multi
program laboratory.
February 22,
2008
From the Director: Looking Forward
The impacts of the FY08 appropriated budget were severe for SLAC. In the face of unexpectedly low appropriations for this fiscal year and an anticipated continuing resolution for the first 4 to 6 months of next fiscal year, we moved as quickly as possible to reduce our spending and resize our workforce to a realistic assessment of the future program scope and opportunities.
February 15,
2008
From the Operations and ETS Directors:
The Effect of Staff Reductions on SLAC Support Services
Due to the difficult FY08 budget, support services at the lab have been diminished. A list of specific services affected by the staff reduction can now be found online.
February 8,
2008
From the Director:
PEMP Grades
This week, the laboratory is focused on the layoffs that are being announced.
February 1,
2008
From the SSRL Director:
From a Shed to a Directorate of SLAC
Everybody at SLAC knows Pief Panofsky and other high energy physics and accelerator pioneers of the lab, but it is a safe bet that the history and pioneers of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) are less well known. Here I briefly want to tell how SSRL developed from a hole in the wall (of SPEAR) to an important part of SLAC.
January
January 25,
2008
From the Director—Challenging Times: Questions and Answers
These are challenging days for the laboratory. It has been two weeks since I announced a major layoff, and it will be early February before individual staff are notified whether or not they will be laid off.
January 18,
2008
From the Director of LCLS Construction:
Okay, So We Build the LCLS and Turn It On—Then What?
When the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) was first conceived in 1992, an x-ray free-electron laser was considered an expensive and technically high-risk endeavor to create a light source with unprecedented and indeed uncertain potential.
January 11,
2008
From the PPA Director: BaBar's Shortened Run
As you all know, one of the consequences of the budget cut we face here at SLAC is the early conclusion of the B-factory run. Persis mentioned in her all-hands meeting that BaBar started operating in a different mode just before Christmas to make the most of the shortened run. The PEP-II accelerator team and BaBar physicists have put in a huge effort to adjust their program so rapidly to the changes imposed on us and it is testimony to their resourcefulness that this plan could be implemented so quickly.
January 8,
2008
The FY08 Budget and Its Impact on SLAC
This laboratory ended 2007 with a commitment to face our future as one lab. There are difficulties ahead. The purpose of this All Hands meeting is to update you on the FY2008 budget for SLAC.
January 4,
2008
All Hands Meeting
Welcome back and happy New Year; I trust you all had a restful and enjoyable holiday. As you know, before the shutdown we received disappointing news of the FY08 budget.
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