Michael Stewart Witherell
{{Short description|American physicist (born 1949)}}
{{Use MDY dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Michael Stewart Witherell
| image = Michael Witherell 420044 by Christopher Michel 242025 01.jpg
| caption = Witherell in 2025
| order = 8th
| title = Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
| term_start = March 1, 2016
| term_end =
| president = Barack Obama
Donald Trump
Joe Biden
| predecessor = Paul Alivisatos
| successor =
| order1 = 4th
| title1 = Director of the Fermilab
| term_start1 = July 1, 1999
| term_end1 = June 30, 2005
| president1 = Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
| predecessor1 = John Peoples Jr.
| successor1 = Piermaria Oddone
| birth_date = {{birth-date and age|22 September 1949}}
| birth_place = Toledo, Ohio, U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| resting_place =
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{{Infobox scientist | embed=yes
| fields = Physics (high-energy particle physics)
| workplaces = Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Santa Barbara, Fermilab, Princeton University
| alma_mater = {{ubl|University of Michigan (BS)|University of Wisconsin (PhD)}}
| thesis_title = The eta-pion mass-spectrum from threshold to 1200 mev/c-square in the reaction negative pion-proton ---> (negative pion,eta-meson,proton)
| thesis_url = https://www.proquest.com/docview/302662598/
| thesis_year = 1973
| doctoral_advisor = Richard Prepost
| academic_advisors =
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}}
}}
Michael Stewart Witherell (born 22 September 1949) is an American particle physicist and laboratory director.[http://www.aip.org/history/acap/biographies/bio.jsp?witherellm Michael S. Witherell | Array of Contemporary Physicists] He has been the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 2016.{{Cite web |title=Director |url=https://www.lbl.gov/lab-leadership/director/ |access-date=2022-06-27 |website=www.lbl.gov}} Witherell, a particle physicist, previously served as Director of Fermilab. He previously served as professor and vice chancellor for research at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Early life and education
Career
From 1973 to 1981 he was on the faculty of Princeton University. He was a member of the physics faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1981 to 1999.
In 1985 Witherell led an experiment at Fermilab which was the first to isolate a large sample of particles containing the charm quark using the new technology of silicon microstrip detectors.{{cite web |url=https://www.fnal.gov/pub/ferminews/ferminews00-06-30/p2.html|title = Achievements of the Fixed Target Era (Ferminews, June 30, 2000)}} He received the 1990 Panofsky Prize from the American Physical Society for this research. In 1998 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Witherell served as the Director of the Fermilab from 1999 to 2005. In 2005 he returned to UC Santa Barbara as the Vice Chancellor for Research, serving in that role until 2016.
In January 2016, the University of California Board of Regents appointed him to be the Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.{{cite web |url= http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2016/01/21/uc-names-michael-witherell-to-head-lawrence-berkeley-national-laboratory |title = UC names Michael Witherell to head Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |date = 21 January 2016 |publisher= Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory}} In 2017 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. {{cite web |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/michael-witherell|title=Dr. Michael Witherell |date=7 October 2023 | publisher = American Academy of Arts and Sciences}}
Service
Witherell chaired the Fermilab Program Advisory Committee from 1987 to 1989 and the SLAC Scientific Policy Committee from 1994 to 1996, and the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel of the United States Department of Energy from 1997 to 1999. He chaired the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Advisory Committee (MPSAC) of the NSF from 2006 to 2008 and the National Academy of Science's Board on Physics and Astronomy from 2015 to 2016.
Witherell served on the National Academies' Committee on Science, Engineering, Medicine and Public Policy (COSEMPUP) from 2017-2021. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences Council in 2023.{{cite web | url = http://www.nasonline.org/about-nas/leadership/| title = Leadership and Governance: NAS Council | website = National Academy of Sciences | access-date = July 1, 2023 }}
Personal life
His wife Elizabeth Witherell, a literary historian and scholarly editor, is editor-in-chief of The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau project at UC Santa Barbara. {{cite web | url =
https://thoreau.library.ucsb.edu/project_history.html | title = Project Direction and History | website = The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau | access-date = January 17, 2023}}
Awards and honors
- 1986: elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society
- 1988: Guggenheim Fellow for the academic year 1988–1989[http://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/michael-s-witherell/ John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Michael S. Witherell]
- 1990: awarded the Panofsky Prize
- 1998: elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences
- 2004: received the Gold Award of the US Secretary of Energy
- 2017: elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Michael Witherell}}
- [http://www.lbl.gov/lab-leadership/director/ Berkeley Lab Director Michael Witherell]
- [http://hep.ucsb.edu/people/witherel/witherel.html Witherell's web page at the University of California, Santa Barbara]
- [http://www.fnal.gov/pub/ferminews/FermiNews99-03-19.pdf Fermi News, March 1999, appointment of Witherell as Director of Fermilab]
- [http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/1999/B/199901321.html Science Blog — Distinguished Physicist Michael Witherell Appointed Director of Fermilab]
- with Helen Quinn: [http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-asymmetry-between-matter-and-an-2003-03/ The asymmetry between matter and antimatter.] Scientific American, October 1998
- [http://inspirehep.net/author/profile/Michael.S.Witherell.1 Michael S. Witherell's profile and scientific publications] on INSPIRE-HEP
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Category:University of Michigan alumni
Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
Category:University of California, Santa Barbara faculty
Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society
Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Category:Winners of the Panofsky Prize
Category:21st-century American physicists
Category:American particle physicists