November 1, 2011
Stanford University announced today that Persis S. Drell, director at
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, has decided to return to her
position as a faculty member. She has asked the president and the
provost to initiate a search for her successor. Drell will stay on as
SLAC Director until a replacement is in place.
Drell has served in positions of increasing responsibility with SLAC
since 2002 and was named as the laboratory's fourth director in
December 2007. She is widely credited with having made SLAC one of the
leading laboratories under the stewardship of the Department of Energy
(DOE) Office of Science. During her tenure as director, SLAC moved from
being a laboratory dedicated primarily to research in the area of
high-energy physics to one that is now seen as a world leader in
advancing discoveries in a number of scientific disciplines. In 2010,
the laboratory began operations on the Linac Coherent Light Source
(LCLS), the world's most powerful X-ray laser, which promises to
revolutionize the view of the atomic world as it performs basic
scientific research and drives applications in energy and environmental
sciences, drug development and materials engineering.
"Persis has been a phenomenal leader at SLAC," said John Hennessy,
Stanford's president. Stanford operates SLAC on behalf of the DOE Office
of Science. "Under her guidance, the laboratory has seen a true
renaissance, and is now involved in scientific pursuits in areas ranging
from energy research to biology and medicine. She has served SLAC, the
DOE and Stanford incredibly well. It's difficult to see her step down,
but I respect her wishes to return to her academic roots and am happy
she will continue her work at Stanford."
Under Stanford Provost John Etchemendy's direction, a committee is
being assembled to conduct an international search for a new laboratory
director. The committee will be co-chaired by William Madia, Stanford's
vice president for SLAC, and Roger Blandford, director of the Kavli
Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology and a professor of
physics at SLAC and Stanford. The committee expects to undertake the
search and conduct interviews during the first six months of 2012.
"My four years as laboratory director at SLAC have been exciting and
rewarding," Drell said, "but after a decade in lab management, I feel
this is the right time for me to get back to my first loves of research
and teaching. I couldn't be more proud of what the staff at SLAC has
accomplished. The laboratory is extremely well positioned for a future
of outstanding science. I can't predict what the future will hold, but
I'm excited about the possibilities for both SLAC and for myself in the
coming years."
"I've known Persis for 32 years, ever since she was a first year
graduate student with Professor Eugene Commins at the University of
California-Berkeley," said Steven Chu, U.S. Secretary of Energy. "At
that time, I was completing my postdoctoral appointment at Berkeley,
working in the same group, and together we built a laser system that was
later used in her graduate thesis. The following year, she worked for a
brief period in my lab as part of a Bell Labs mentoring program, the
Graduate Research Program for Women.
"We maintained our friendship during the remainder of her time at
Berkeley, her time as professor at Cornell, and then when she joined
SLAC and Stanford. She is an exceptional administrator and gifted
scientist. Most of all, I value her as a close friend, confidant and
adviser over these many years. What she has done for SLAC in her tenure
as director is nothing short of remarkable. Her wish to step down as lab
director is a loss for the administration of SLAC and the Department of
Energy. Luckily, SLAC, Stanford and the Department of Energy will
continue to benefit from her considerable talents as a scientist and
professor."
SLAC is a multi‐program laboratory exploring frontier questions
in photon science, astrophysics, particle physics and accelerator
research. Located in Menlo Park, SLAC is operated by Stanford University
for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.
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