Nigel Lockyer
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Nigel Stuart Lockyer (born 5 November 1952) is a British-American experimental particle physicist. He is the current director of the Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-based ScienceS and Education (CLASSE) as of May 1, 2023. He was the Director of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), in
Batavia, Illinois Batavia () is a city mainly in Kane County, Illinois, Kane County and partly in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage County in the U.S. state of Illinois. Located in the Chicago metropolitan area, it was founded in 1833 and is the oldest city in Kan ...
, the leading particle physics laboratory in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, from September 2013 to April 2022. Prior to becoming Fermilab's Director, Lockyer served as Director of
TRIUMF Triumf may refer to: * TRIUMF, Canada's national particle accelerator centre * 14959 TRIUMF, a minor planet * S-400 Triumf, a Russian anti-aircraft weapon system developed in the 1990s * Triumf Riza (1979–2007), Kosovo police officer and member o ...
, Canada's national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics, from May 2007 to September 2013, and was a Professor of Physics at the
University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...
and
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
. He was born in Scotland, raised in Canada, and attended graduate school in the United States.


Early life and career

Lockyer was born in Annan,
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1975 from
York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...
in Toronto, and in 1980 obtained his Ph.D. from
Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...
. After receiving his Ph.D., Lockyer spent four years at
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Menlo Park, California, Menlo Park, Ca ...
at
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
as a postdoctoral research fellow, working with Nobel Laureate
Burton Richter Burton Richter (March 22, 1931 – July 18, 2018) was an American physicist. He led the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) team which co-discovered the J/ψ meson in 1974, alongside the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) team led by S ...
, who directed SLAC from 1984 to 1999. At SLAC, he was a spokesperson for the Mark-II collaboration. In 1984, Lockyer began his 23-year career as a physics faculty member at the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
. While at UPenn Lockyer also lectured on Benjamin Franklin, and taught a class with playwright
Tom Stoppard Sir Tom Stoppard (; born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...
on his ''Arcadia.''


Research and contributions in medicine and energy

Lockyer is a
particle physicist Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and fundamental interaction, forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the scale of protons and ...
. At the University of Pennsylvania, his research focused on high-energy particle experiments at the energy frontier, with an interest in testing fundamental symmetries and studying the heaviest quarks. In recent years, his research has included experimental searches for hypothesized " supersymmetric" particles. While at UPenn, Lockyer developed his interest in the applications of physics to real-world problems; he worked with the Penn Medical School on
proton therapy In medicine, proton therapy, or proton radiotherapy, is a type of particle therapy that uses a beam of protons to irradiate diseased tissue, most often to treat cancer. The chief advantage of proton therapy over other types of external beam ...
for cancer and detectors for
medical physics Medical physics deals with the application of the concepts and methods of physics to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human diseases with a specific goal of improving human health and well-being. Since 2008, medical physics has been incl ...
and developed an interest in
superconducting radio frequency Superconducting radio frequency (SRF) science and technology involves the application of electrical Superconductivity, superconductors to radio frequency devices. The ultra-low Electrical resistivity and conductivity, electrical resistivity of ...
applications to accelerators. From 2002 to 2004, Lockyer served as co-spokesperson for a 600-person international collaboration known as CDF, the
Collider Detector at Fermilab The Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) experimental collaboration studies high energy particle collisions from the Tevatron, the world's former highest-energy particle accelerator. The goal is to discover the identity and properties of the par ...
experiment at the laboratory's
Tevatron The Tevatron was a circular particle accelerator (active until 2011) in the United States, at the Fermilab, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (called ''Fermilab''), east of Batavia, Illinois, and was the highest energy particle collider unt ...
particle accelerator. The project achieved world acclaim for discovering and studying the
top quark The top quark, sometimes also referred to as the truth quark, (symbol: t) is the most massive of all observed elementary particles. It derives its mass from its coupling to the Higgs field. This coupling is very close to unity; in the Standard ...
, one of the fundamental building blocks of nature, a counterpart to the
bottom quark The bottom quark, beauty quark, or b quark, is an elementary particle of the third generation. It is a heavy quark with a charge of −  ''e''. All quarks are described in a similar way by electroweak interaction and quantum chromodynamic ...
.


TRIUMF

Lockyer served as director of
TRIUMF Triumf may refer to: * TRIUMF, Canada's national particle accelerator centre * 14959 TRIUMF, a minor planet * S-400 Triumf, a Russian anti-aircraft weapon system developed in the 1990s * Triumf Riza (1979–2007), Kosovo police officer and member o ...
, Canada's national laboratory for particle and
nuclear physics Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies th ...
from 2007 until 2013. Towards the end of his mandate, 2013 to 2014, he was also chair of the International Committee for Future Accelerators, a working group of the
International Union of Pure and Applied Physics The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP; ) is an international non-governmental organization whose mission is to assist in the worldwide development of physics, to foster international cooperation in physics, and to help in the ...
. Under Lockyer's leadership, TRIUMF framed an ambitious vision to achieve a world-class program in rare-isotope beams and subatomic-physics research, to address some of the most fundamental questions in science. This vision included expanding the nuclear-medicine program and the formulation of ARIEL, a new flagship facility for the study of
isotopes Isotopes are distinct nuclear species (or ''nuclides'') of the same chemical element. They have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), but ...
for physics and medicine. Lockyer expanded the laboratory's operations, earning a reputation as a national leader and team-builder. He also developed a strong working partnership among Canada's major science laboratories, expanded the number of member universities, and built international collaborations with Japan, India, China, and Korea.


Fermilab

Lockyer began his tenure as director of Fermilab, America's premier laboratory for particle physics research, on September 3, 2013. As Fermilab director, Lockyer oversees a powerful complex of
particle accelerators A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel electric charge, charged particles to very high speeds and energies to contain them in well-defined particle beam, beams. Small accelerators are used for fundamental ...
and sophisticated experiments to study the nature of
matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which are made up of interacting subatomic pa ...
,
energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...
,
space Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...
and
time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
. Thousands of scientists from around the world use Fermilab facilities for their research. Fermilab has the most powerful neutrino beams in the world to explore the nature of
neutrinos A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is an elementary particle that interacts via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass is so small ('' -ino'') that it ...
and is proposing a project to host the first large-scale, international basic science project on U.S. soil. The
Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is a neutrino experiment under construction, with a near detector at Fermilab and a far detector at the Sanford Underground Research Facility that will observe neutrinos produced at Fermilab. An int ...
, or DUNE, is a proposed world-leading neutrino experiment, which includes more than 1,000 scientists from more than 30 countries and 170 institutions, and involves construction at both Fermilab and the
Sanford Underground Research Facility The Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), or Sanford Lab, is an underground laboratory in Lead, South Dakota. The deepest underground laboratory in the United States, it houses multiple experiments in areas such as dark matter and neutrino ...
(Sanford Lab) in
Lead, South Dakota Lead ( ) is a city in Lawrence County, South Dakota, Lawrence County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 2,982 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Lead is located in western South Dakota, in the Black Hills near the Wyom ...
.
CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...
, representing European institutions, is a major partner in the experiment. CERN is currently developing a neutrino platform to advance technology for neutrino experiments with a significant part of this effort focused on DUNE. Fermilab will improve its Short-Baseline Neutrino Program with three detectors: MicroBoone, which is now operating;
ICARUS In Greek mythology, Icarus (; , ) was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the architect of the labyrinth of Crete. After Theseus, king of Athens and enemy of King Minos, escaped from the labyrinth, Minos suspected that Icarus and Daedalu ...
, which will arrive from CERN by the end of 2016; and the smaller Short-Baseline Near Detector ( SBND) which will be built on a similar timescale. All three detectors will work in unison to search for sterile neutrinos and to advance liquid
argon Argon is a chemical element; it has symbol Ar and atomic number 18. It is in group 18 of the periodic table and is a noble gas. Argon is the third most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere, at 0.934% (9340 ppmv). It is more than twice as abu ...
Time Project Chamber technology which has been adopted by DUNE. ICARUS, currently being refurbished at CERN after four years at the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) Gran Sasso National Laboratory, will be transported to Fermilab by a group of scientists led by
Carlo Rubbia Carlo Rubbia (born 31 March 1934) is an Italian particle physicist and inventor who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984 with Simon van der Meer for work leading to the discovery of the W and Z particles at CERN. Early life and educatio ...
, Nobel Laureate in Physics. The facility required for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) will comprise the world's highest-intensity neutrino beam at Fermilab and the infrastructure necessary to support detectors installed deep underground at Sanford Lab. Using accelerators at Fermilab, an intense beam of neutrinos would be produced and travel 1300
kilometers The kilometre ( SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American and Philippine English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is the preferred measu ...
through the earth to an underground
neutrino detector A neutrino detector is a physics apparatus which is designed to study neutrinos. Because neutrinos only weakly interact with other particles of matter, neutrino detectors must be very large to detect a significant number of neutrinos. Neutrino ...
at Sanford Lab. LBNF would be the most powerful tool in the world to study neutrinos and has been identified by the U.S particle physics community as the highest priority domestic construction project. Construction of an underground facility, including labs and neutrino detector in the
Black Hills The Black Hills is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black Elk Peak, which rises to , is the range's highest summit. The name of the range ...
of South Dakota will begin in 2017 and is expected to be completed in 2023, while construction at Fermilab is scheduled to be completed between 2024 and 2026. In order to supply the required intense bean of neutrinos to the detectors at the new and far sites Fermilab has proposed the Proton Improvement Plan II (PIP-II). The project, which will improve Fermilab's particle accelerator complex with a major overhaul and power boost, will involve retiring the cooper linac and building a new superconducting radio-frequency linac. The proposed upgrade to the linear accelerator involves an international collaboration with India, whose
Department of Atomic Energy The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) (IAST: ''Paramāṇu Ūrjā Vibhāga'') is an Indian government department with headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. DAE was established in 1954 with Jawaharlal Nehru as its first minister and Homi ...
will contribute hardware in exchange for experience in building high-intensity superconducting radio-frequency proton linacs. The largest of Fermilab's new projects is the recently completed
NOvA A nova ( novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. All observed novae involve white ...
Neutrino Experiment at Fermilab and in Ash River,
Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
. NOvA will investigate
neutrino oscillations Neutrino oscillation is a quantum mechanical phenomenon in which a neutrino created with a specific lepton family number ("lepton flavor": electron, muon, or tau) can later be measured to have a different lepton family number. The probability o ...
, a phenomenon that could hold important clues to the evolution of the early universe. The first NOvA results, which were released in August 2015, verify the experiment's massive
particle detector In experimental and applied particle physics, nuclear physics, and nuclear engineering, a particle detector, also known as a radiation detector, is a device used to detect, track, and/or identify ionizing elementary particle, particles, such as t ...
is detecting neutrinos fired from 800 kilometers away and making great progress towards its goal of a major leap in our understanding of neutrinos. Fermilab is a U.S hub for research into the
Higgs boson The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the excited state, quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the field (physics), fields in particl ...
and other high energy phenomena and is making major upgrades of the
Compact Muon Solenoid The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment is one of two large general-purpose particle physics detectors built on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland and France. The goal of the CMS experiment is to investigate a wide range ...
(CMS) detector—one of two large detectors located at the
Large Hadron Collider The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It was built by the CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008, in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists, ...
(LHC) at
CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...
in Europe. Fermilab is involved in cosmic research through the
Dark Energy Survey The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is an astronomical survey designed to constrain the properties of dark energy. It uses images taken in the near-ultraviolet, Visible spectrum, visible, and near-infrared to measure the expansion of the universe using ...
, which includes over 120 scientists from 23 institutions in the United States, Spain, United Kingdom, Brazil, and Germany. The project relies on a Dark Energy camera, a high-resolution camera built at Fermilab for a telescope in
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
that will look for evidence of
dark energy In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is a proposed form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales. Its primary effect is to drive the accelerating expansion of the universe. It also slows the rate of structure format ...
that is responsible for the expansion of the universe. In March 2015, a team of researchers using data collected during the first year of the survey discovered a rare dwarf satellite galaxy orbiting the
Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...
. In the fields of
astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline, James Keeler, said, astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the ...
and particle physics, the nature of
Dark Matter In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...
is important, and Fermilab is engaged in several generation one dark matter searches, including DAMIC, SuperCDMS, PICO, and Darkside50. A new state-of-the-art facility being built at Fermilab, the Illinois Accelerator Research Center, or IARC, will provide resources for accelerator industrialization. The facility will allow not only scientists and engineers from Fermilab, but those from
Argonne National Laboratory Argonne National Laboratory is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Lemont, Illinois, Lemont, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1946, the laboratory is owned by the United Sta ...
and Illinois universities to collaborate with partners from industry to develop breakthroughs in accelerator technology and new applications in energy and environment, medicine, industry,
national security National security, or national defence (national defense in American English), is the security and Defence (military), defence of a sovereign state, including its Citizenship, citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of ...
and
discovery science Discovery science (also known as discovery-based science) is a scientific methodology which aims to find new patterns, correlations, and form hypotheses through the analysis of large-scale experimental data. The term “discovery science” enc ...
.


Awards and honors

Lockyer is a fellow of the
American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...
and is well known in the physics community for his work on the particle known as the bottom quark. In 2006, Lockyer was awarded the American Physical Society's W.K.H. Panofsky Prize for having measured the abnormally long lifetime of the B quark while at SLAC's Mark-II. In 2014 Lockyer received the Pinnacle Achievement Bryden Award from York University for achievement in his field. In May 2015, Lockyer received an honorary doctoral degree from
Northern Illinois University Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois, United States. It was founded as "Northern Illinois State Normal School" in 1895 by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld, initially to provide the state with c ...
. He was appointed
Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
(OBE) in the
2022 New Year Honours The 2022 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...
for services to science and UK-US relations.


References


External links


Fermilab

Fermilab: Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF)

Fermilab: Illinois Accelerator Research Center (IARC)











York University profile on Nigel Lockyer

APS Prize profile on Nigel Lockyer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lockyer, Nigel Living people University of Pennsylvania faculty Academic staff of the University of British Columbia Winners of the Panofsky Prize 1952 births People associated with Fermilab People from Batavia, Illinois People from Annan, Dumfries and Galloway Officers of the Order of the British Empire Scottish emigrants to the United States Naturalized citizens of the United States American physicists Scottish physicists Particle physicists People associated with IUPAP