[All_jlab_accounts] CASA leadership change---a message from Andrew Hutton

[Mary Beth Stewart]

/Sent on behalf of Andrew Hutton/

Geoff Krafft has been the Director of CASA for the last seven years and 
has done an outstanding job.  Under his leadership, the 12 GeV design 
was finalized and accelerator physics support provided to the 12 GeV 
Project; the 12 GeV commissioning was successfully organized and carried 
out; the MEIC design made significant progress; and many other smaller 
accelerator physics tasks were completed successfully.  At the same 
time, Geoff has also regularly taught an introductory course on 
accelerator physics at ODU, an area where he excels.  During this time, 
Geoff has not been able to spend as much time as he would have liked on 
"real" accelerator physics as administrative duties have taken priority. 
  Geoff has now asked to have his administrative load reduced so that he 
can spend more time on research, and I have agreed to his request.

One of the things that Geoff points to with pride is his mentorship of 
Mike Spata, who has been the Deputy Director of CASA for the last year 
and is now ready to step up to take the leadership role.  Mike started 
his career at Stony Brook University, moving to JLab to participate in 
CEBAF commissioning.  Mike rapidly rose to become the MCC Group Leader, 
acquiring a solid reputation for his organizational abilities, 
particularly for his leadership in the renovation of the control room. 
In this period, Mike was also responsible for coordinating the 
installation and commissioning of the HKS II experiment (a million 
pounds of equipment from Japan), earning praise from our Japanese 
colleagues for his professional attitude and effectiveness. Mike joined 
CASA in 2007 to participate in the development of the beamline model and 
to manage the diagnostics, high-level applications, safety systems and 
extraction for the 12 GeV Upgrade. Mike was also the lead CASA scientist 
on commissioning planning.  In parallel, Mike returned to school, 
obtaining his PhD in accelerator physics in 2012.

As of July 16, Mike Spata will become the Director of CASA, and Geoff 
will be appointed as a CASA Fellow while acting as Deputy CASA Director 
until October.  Geoff will be able to spend more time on accelerator 
physics theory and to mentor the junior members of CASA, as well as 
spending more time on outreach activities.  Please join me in wishing 
Geoff and Mike success in their new roles and in helping them to be 
successful.

Andrew  Hutton
Associate Director, Accelerators


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