[Cuga] Here’s to Excellence, Innovation, and the Next Great Ascent!- A message from Jens
Lorelei Carlson
lorelei at jlab.org
Wed Dec 17 08:56:41 EST 2025
Happy Holidays From Lab Director Jens Dilling
͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
HERE’S TO EXCELLENCE, INNOVATION, AND THE NEXT GREAT ASCENT!
Friends and Colleagues,
As we approach the holiday season with our families and friends, I would like to take a moment to reflect on our accomplishments and your commitment to the lab throughout the year.
Your dedication and outstanding efforts have been truly inspiring. It has been just over five months since me coming to the laboratory, and I continue to be more and more excited about the laboratory and its role as the premier nuclear physics laboratory for the nation as we continue to realize our top priorities: safety, the well-being of the organization and its people, and mission delivery for the Department of Energy and our users.
I am proud to highlight this year’s record-setting accomplishment: achieving 86.7% CEBAF reliability during the past experimental run, which saw each of the four halls complete major experiments – what an achievement in delivering outstanding science. Exceeding the DOE requirement of 85% reliability for the first time since the 12 Gev Upgrade is a testament to our track record as a high-performing organization and showcases our collective drive for excellence – a true team effort of the laboratory.
It has been a turbulent year with shifts and uncertainties, including a long government shutdown. I want to thank you for your patience and community spirit while we worked to maintain the operation of the lab, with all of the creative elements we needed to employ to find solutions. I am committed to continue to offer transparency and clear guidance, and I want to thank you for your trust. As we enter 2026, we have received funding from the DOE to restore our reserves to a better state, and we are working to put this experience behind us and be prepared for the future. This will include some tough decisions that are to take place via the workforce restructuring plan currently underway. We are conducting the process having in mind the well-being of the organization and respect for all of us. This is clearly not the popular decision, but looking back at the shutdown, it is undoubtably the right and necessary one. I am committed to position the lab so we can continue building on the success of our nuclear physics program, including, among many high-impact experiments, the upcoming MOLLER experiment at CEBAF. And looking further, towards realization of the High Performance Data Facility, the future holds tremendous opportunities for our lab, in Nuclear Physics and beyond, and the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) project, as our parallel sister facility to CEBAF for the future.
Innovation was a hallmark of 2025. Earlier this year, the first beam acceleration through the niobium-tin cryomodule Gray Enid-I took place, representing a breakthrough toward more energy-efficient particle accelerators of the future. What an achievement and team effort!
Over the summer, two Energy Sciences Network-Jefferson Lab Field Programmable Gate Array Accelerated Transport (EJFAT) demonstrations successfully streamed data connecting Brookhaven and Jefferson labs during U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright’s visit. This showcased the lab’s emerging data science capabilities, very much impressed the Secretary, and made all of us proud of our teams involved.
The Theory Center delved deeper into discoveries that will chart the course for future experiments, including gluon polarization in the proton, new calculations of light meson resonances in radiative decays, artificial intelligence and machine learning technology for the EIC, and more. We had some setbacks with our university program, and we are working hard to keep everyone engaged and motivated as we find ways to excel in nuclear science with our partners and the community.
These achievements and others have paved a path toward a bright future for the lab for many years to come. A decision on the new laboratory management and operating (M&O) contract is expected from DOE in late March next year, and as you know, I am fully committed to the lab and our nuclear physics future at CEBAF and beyond for many years to come. In the meantime, while that decision is not mine, I will do everything I can to ensure Jefferson Lab is in the best position possible for the next phase, with or without me (I am hoping for “with!”).
Please take this well-deserved time off to rest and rejuvenate. I am confident that when we return in the new year, we will continue to build on these successes together and strive for greater heights. This is a place for great science, and I am very proud and honored to be part of the team and community.
Wishing you and your loved ones safe and happy holidays,
[https://mcusercontent.com/1de9c43e6d5e45ff0ecd664cd/images/b36b2b61-766f-f820-7d21-694caef52f31.png]
Jens
Your Jefferson Lab Director
[https://mcusercontent.com/1de9c43e6d5e45ff0ecd664cd/images/5c43c1fd-57da-7b98-ca60-906cb6feaaf6.png]
[https://mcusercontent.com/1de9c43e6d5e45ff0ecd664cd/images/1023f530-0ab7-b3bd-857c-f673eb90c909.png]
JEFFERSON LAB | NEWPORT NEWS, VA
JLAB.ORG
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