ENGINEERING

Germantown, Md.--Officials of the Department of Energy's Office of High Energy and Nuclear Physics announced today (March 24) that after 15 years as Director of the Division of High Energy Physics, Dr. John R. O'Fallon has accepted the position of Executive Assistant for International and Interagency Planning, in the Office of the Associate Director for High Energy and Nuclear Physics, effective March 24, 2003. In his new position, O'Fallon will have responsibilities that are essential for the long-term health and vitality of Department of Energy programs in High Energy Physics. These responsibilities center around two major activities: designing, planning, and implementing LHC policies and activities for a DOE/NSF presence at CERN; and establishing the framework necessary for other international projects that the global high energy physics community proposes to pursue. In addition to these major tasks, he will head up a Department of Energy initiative designated as Streamlining Departmental Grants Processing, part of DOE's E-Government Strategic Action Plan. Dr. Robin Staffin will serve as Acting Director of High Energy Physics, as well as continuing in his present capacity as Deputy Associate Director for High Energy and Nuclear Physics. Dr. Peter Rosen, Associate Director of the DOE Office of Science for High Energy and Nuclear Physics, said, "I would like to thank John for his nearly 15 years of distinguished service as Director of the Division of High Energy Physics. During his tenure, the program has produced extraordinary scientific achievements, including the discovery of the top quark and the first observation of the tau neutrino at Fermilab, the first observation of CP violation in the B-meson system and the precision measurement of sin 2 beta at SLAC, the discovery of dark energy at LBNL, the world's most precise measurement of g-2 at the Brookhaven AGS, and the convincing evidence for atmospheric neutrino oscillations at SuperKamiokande. These breathtaking advances which literally define the state of our field all took place on his watch and stewardship. "Particularly noteworthy was his instrumental role in laying the groundwork with CERN and setting the framework for U.S. scientists to continue research at the energy frontier by orchestrating the program's shift to research at the LHC after the demise of the SSC. He oversaw the very successful initiation, construction, and running of the B-factory at SLAC. Both the B-Factory at SLAC and the Main Injector at Fermilab were completed on time and within budget. The GLAST/LAT project at SLAC and the NuMI/MINOS experiment at Fermilab are both set upon firm paths to completion, and we are beginning to move forward on SNAP. This, too, is an outstanding record of achievement. "Dr. Staffin has been with HENP as Deputy Associate Director for two years, and he has come to know our programs very well. He received his Ph.D. in High Energy Theory under Sidney Drell at SLAC. Prior to coming to HENP, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Development in DOE's Office of Defense Programs, and was later appointed Senior Policy Advisor for Science and Technology and Scientific Advisor to the Secretary of Energy. This unique range of experience has been of great value to us, and I am certain that our programs will continue to benefit from it while he assumes the additional duties of Acting Director of the HEP Division."