U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Science
Perspectives from the
DOE Office of High Energy Physics
SLAC Users Organization Meeting
July 6, 2004
Dr. Robin Staffin, Associate Director
Office of High Energy Physics
Office of Science, DOE
U.S. Department of Energy
What are some of the things
I have learned in the past year?
Office of Science
What is a User: a lot more than one who uses
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Design
Build
Maintain
Take data
Analyze
Write & publish papers
Public Outreach
+ What I missed
A Great Partnership between the
Laboratory and User Community
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U.S. Department of Energy
We’re just full of partnerships
Office of Science
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Lab – Universities
Lab – Lab
Lab – DOE
Lab – NSF
DOE – NSF
DOE – NASA
DOE – NSF – White House
DOE – NASA – White House
DOE – NSF – NASA – White House
Interests are not always initially aligned
Necessary for communication, consultation, and consensus
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U.S. Department of Energy
A few modest examples
Office of Science
 Joint Dark Energy Mission
 DOE – NASA
 Physics of the Universe Report
 White House – NSF – NASA – DOE
 National Academy of Sciences Study of Elementary Particle Physics
 DOE – NSF
 Governments and the Linear Collider
 UK – Germany – France – Italy – US – Canada – Japan – CERN – ?
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U.S. Department of Energy
Washington sees growing technical
success at the HEP laboratories
Office of Science
• Tevatron
Run II Peak Luminosities
• PEP-II Monthly Integrated Luminosities
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U.S. Department of Energy
How do we communicate that “we’re
on the edge of something really big”?
Office of Science
 Quantum Universe: a great start
 It is getting a lot of positive reviews
 It did what we asked for (and more)
 We intend to capitalize on it
 Validation: Nothing like scientific
discovery. Talk of discovery can get
us only so far.
 Priority of the broadest scientific
community: NAS study, and YOUR
efforts.
Dark energy, dark matter, neutrinos, EWSB, Supersymmetry…
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U.S. Department of Energy
Charting a Path for the Future
Office of Science
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Well Known Fact: the HEP budget has not been keeping pace with
inflation. Budgets are a year-to-year process.
Is there reason to believe this trend will not continue, absent
extraordinary trends or national initiative?
Are there enough users for the experiments ongoing or on the way?
(LHC, Run II, B Factory, BTeV, RSVP, JDEM…). Will users stay
committed, will they vote with their feet, will it be overnight?
Is this community inclined to prioritize? To down-select?
 Will it, if asked by the funding agencies?
 Or, must government do it for the community?
 Figuring out the advisory process.
Community assistance to the funding agencies is essential
for the long-term health and even the success of the field
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