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Tor Raubenheimer Becomes Assistant Director for Accelerator R&D; Division Restructured

Tor Raubenheimer, the head of the International Linear Collider (ILC) group at SLAC, has been named the new Assistant Director for SLAC's Accelerator Research Division. Concurrently, the division has been restructured to include three new departments: ILC , High Luminosity Research and Development (R&D), and Large Hadron Collider (LHC) R&D. A revised organizational chart is now posted online.

"I look forward to working with all involved in this very strong and talented division," said Raubenheimer. "I especially look forward to the sharing of expertise, engineering, and technical resources among the many departments in the new Accelerator Research Division and supporting a broad program that looks toward the future of the laboratory."

The departmental changes to the Accelerator Research Division (ARD) seek to bring together all accelerator R&D associated with the laboratory's Particle Physics and Astrophysics Directorate. This includes the four existing accelerator research departments, SLAC's ILC group, and two new departments. SLAC's LHC R&D group, which had been embedded within the ILC group for historical reasons, is now a separate department of ARD. Likewise, the High Luminosity R&D program on accelerator systems for future high luminosity colliders has become a department of ARD.

The SLAC ILC group has also become a department under the umbrella of the Accelerator Research Division. "The separation between the Accelerator Research groups and the ILC group was an unnecessary one," said Raubenheimer. "There are excellent people in Accelerator Research who can and do contribute to the ILC and excellent people in the ILC who can and do contribute to the Accelerator Research programs."

At the same time, the SLAC ILC program has been restructured to make it more closely aligned with the ILC groups producing the Engineering Design Report. "This reorganization will facilitate the international collaboration as SLAC continues its strong involvement in the ILC design," said Raubenheimer.

Steve Kahn, SLAC's recently appointed Director of the Particle Physics and Astrophysics Directorate, echoed this commitment, saying, "The ILC is a critical element of the future worldwide program in High Energy Physics. SLAC has taken a leading role in the ILC design and will continue leading a large portion of this effort through the engineering phase."

In order to free up time for his new position, Raubenheimer has stepped down from the ILC Executive Committee which steered the ILC Reference Design Report and is being replaced by SLAC's Ewan Paterson. Raubenheimer plans to remain strongly involved in the ILC. "I plan to continue on as the accelerator lead for the ILC Americas region and I look forward to continuing a leading technical role in the project," he said.

—Kelen Tuttle, SLAC Today, August 21, 2007

Above photo: Tor Raubenheimer. (Image courtesy of Diana Rogers.)