Nuclear Science Division Staff

The Nuclear Science Division has administrative offices in Building 50, Room 4037. NSD, along with the Accelerator Technology and Applied Physics Division, the Physics Division, and the Engineering Division make up the Physical Sciences.

• Division Director
• Division Office Staff
• Scientific Administrative Staff
• Scientific Staff

Phone Number: (510) 486-5146
Fax: (510) 486-6003

Mailing Address:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Nuclear Science Division
1 Cyclotron Road
Mailstop 50R4049
Berkeley, CA 94720-8153

Please Note: The mail stop must be replaced by the mail stop of the intended recipient.

Division Director

 Volker Koch, NSD Director (Interim) 

Barbara Jacak Steps Down as NSD Director in Return to Research
Longtime nuclear theorist Volker Koch is acting director

Barbara Jacak, a faculty senior scientist who for the past six years led Berkeley Lab’s Nuclear Science Division (NSD), has left that role to devote more time to scientific research, and in particular to R&D for the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) project, which will be built at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Jacak is also maintaining her academic duties as a physics professor at UC Berkeley.

Volker Koch, a theorist and senior physicist in Berkeley Lab’s Nuclear Science Division (NSD) who has previously served as the division’s program head for Nuclear Theory and deputy director for Low Energy Nuclear Science, has stepped in to serve as its acting director, effective Feb. 1, 2021. A committee will be formed to hire a permanent replacement for the position.

“Under Barbara’s leadership NSD has prospered, and she will now be able to turn her full attention to the next generation Electron-Ion Collider project,” said Natalie Roe, Physical Sciences Area director. “I’m grateful that Volker has agreed to take over as interim division director, and know he will keep a steady hand on the tiller.”

Manager role offered variety
Jacak, who described her management approach as, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” said she was happy to find the director position to be very engaging. While her own research interests have revolved around heavy-ion collisions and studies of the so-called “subatomic soup” of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) unleashed from atomic nuclei in these ultrahigh-temperature events, her time as director exposed her to the breadth of nuclear science research taking place at Berkeley Lab and in experiments involving Berkeley Lab around the globe.

A past role as a spokesperson for the international collaboration in a QGP experiment called PHENIX at Brookhaven Lab’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider also helped prepare her for the role in management at Berkeley Lab, she said.

“I thought being director was interesting and fun, and I really enjoyed learning a lot of other aspects of nuclear physics,” Jacak said. “What do people do to understand nuclear structure? Is the neutrino its own antiparticle? How does gamma-ray-tracking work? There are all of these other aspects of nuclear physics we do in NSD that I knew only a little bit about.” She added, “As a manager, it became the cool stuff that we do. That experience is very helpful when we go back to doing our own research in our own corner of the field.”

She said that she felt compelled not to serve too long in the division director role. “I think it’s really important for these (management) types of jobs to be rotated around to different people,” she said. “It brings a new energy and somewhat different focus. I think an institution is healthiest if they get that shot of change every now and then.”

Her excitement about the EIC project, and the fact that the project is already advancing – its first DOE milestone, known as CD-0, was in January 2020, and its construction will take about a decade – definitely prompted Jacak to consider a return to research at this time. “I expected it would be built,” she said, but not to be at this stage yet. Jacak will also spend some time on the ALICE Experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), and a successor experiment to PHENIX called sPHENIX that is expected to begin taking data in 2023 – Berkeley Lab will assemble a detector component for it called a silicon pixel vertex tracker.

Berkeley Lab researchers have been involved in a variety of R&D efforts to support the construction of the EIC, too. Jacak and collaborators from five other UC institutions had received a UC Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives award in 2019 to develop a consortium working on EIC projects. That consortium was tasked with designing and building two detector systems for the EIC, with access to computing resources at Berkeley Lab’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), and substantial contributions by students. The team just got notice that it will receive another four years of support from the UC Office of the President.

Academic aspect of job has its own rewards
Working with students as a UC professor and at Berkeley Lab has been a rewarding aspect of her work, she said. “We are the most academic of the national labs, with our close proximity to and connection with UC Berkeley. We have a lot of faculty senior scientists and a lot of postdocs, and undergrad and grad students. I have enjoyed working with students immensely.”

Prior to her time at Berkeley Lab, Jacak taught for 18 years at Stony Brook University in New York, and before that spent 12 years as a scientific staff member in Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Physics Division. A San Francisco Bay Area native, she received her bachelor’s degree in science at UC Berkeley and her doctorate at Michigan State University.

Jacak said she is encouraged by the diversity in the student population she sees coming through Berkeley Lab and campus these days. “I think it’s a real strength for us.”

A vision for the next science device
Koch should have a smooth transition into his role as acting division director, Jacak said, as he is well-known across NSD and knows Berkeley Lab well. “He’s ready to hit the ground running,” she said.

Past experience overseeing the science program at Berkeley Lab’s 88-Inch Cyclotron and running the division’s theory program gave Koch experience in management, and he said he doesn’t expect any surprises in his transition to the new role.

“I see my role in keeping things afloat and keeping things together,” Koch said, noting that Jacak’s hands-off management style was welcome to him. “She certainly didn’t micromanage us,” he said.

“I want to run this as a team,” Koch said, “and to try to get all the ideas on the table. I think that will create a productive and healthy environment for everyone.”

Koch arrived at Berkeley Lab in 1995 as a divisional fellow after obtaining undergraduate and doctoral degrees in physics from the University of Giessen in Germany, and after serving from 1990-94 as a visiting assistant professor at Stony Brook University. He was promoted to senior physicist at Berkeley Lab in 1999. Koch specializes in theories relating to heavy-ion collisions and strongly interacting matter.

He noted that Berkeley Lab has always been a breeding ground for “all kinds of accelerators” and “innovative instrumentation,” and he would like to see that legacy carried on within NSD. “Maybe we can invent the next ‘gadget’ – we can start and seed the next thing,” he said.

Getting back to face-to-face communication
Koch also said he looks forward to the time when person-to-person discussions can resume as a normal part of collaboration and brainstorming at Berkeley Lab. “People need to be together in the coffee breaks and actually talking to one another,” he said, noting that some researchers and staff are getting burnt out on Zoom-based web meetings.

These are exciting times for the nuclear science field, with the beginning stages of the EIC, he noted, and also with the realization of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University, which is a nuclear science facility and the U.S. Department of Energy’s newest user facility.

FRIB, which will launch next year, will incorporate GRETA, a 3D Gamma-Ray Detector that Berkeley Lab has a lead role in.

Also in the near future, there will be a decision to down-select the next-gen neutrinoless beta decay experiment, which the Lab will play a role in.

More

• “Barbara Jacak Receives 2019 Distinguished Scientist Fellow Award,” Oct. 16, 2019
• “Barbara Jacak Appointed as Director of Nuclear Science Division,” Jan. 5, 2015

Division Office Staff

Name	Position	Phone	Fax	Email	Mail Stop
Volker Koch	Division Director (Interim)	5323	6003	VKoch at lbl.gov	50R4049
Alan Poon	Division Deputy	2467	6003	AWPoon at lbl.gov	50R4049
Sandy Ritterbusch	Executive Assistant	5146	6003	SERitterbusch at lbl.gov	50R4049
Zuting Liu	Pr. Resource Analyst	6953	6003	TLiu at lbl.gov	50R4049
Laura Stine	Pr. Resource Analyst	495-2146	6003	LStine at lbl.gov	50R4049
Tom Gallant	Program Manager	7022	6003	TGGallant at lbl.gov	50R4049
Jeff Bramble	Safety Coordinator	6242	6003	JRBramble at lbl.gov	75R0123
Marcia Ocon Leimer	HR Center Manager	4904	2201	MOcon_Leimer at lbl.gov	59R3022B
Carolyn Charles	Sr. HR Division Partner	6619	5842	CGCharles at lbl.gov	50R4049
Kelly Rushing	HR Division Partner	5683	6003	KRushing at lbl.gov	50R4049
Tasha Oliver	HR Assistant	495-2233	6003	LOliver at lbl.gov	50R4049

Scientific Administrative/Operations Staff

Name	Scientific Program	Phone	Fax	Email	Mail Stop
Lady Bonifacio	Relativistic Nuclear Collisions/Nuclear Theory	4974	4818	LBonifacio at lbl.gov	70R0319
Dorothy Kenlow	Applied Nuclear Physics/Neutrinos	7535	7983	DIKenlow at lbl.gov	88R0192
Kymba A’Hearn	88-Inch Cyclotron Users/Ops/Low Energy	6780	7983	KSAHearn at lbl.gov	88R0192

Scientific Staff

Name	Project	Phone	Email	Mail Stop
Coral Baglin	Nuclear Data	6152	CMBaglin at lbl.gov	88R0192
Shamsuzzoha Basunia	Nuclear Data	7648	SBasunia at lbl.gov	88R0192
Edgardo Brown Moreno	Nuclear Data	7647	EBrowne at lbl.gov	88R0192
Joseph Cerny III	Low Energy Nuclear Physics	7852	JCerny at lbl.gov	88R0192
Yuen-Dat Chan	Neutrinos	7848	YDChan at lbl.gov	50R5008
Roderick M. Clark	Low Energy Nuclear Physics	4243	RMClark at lbl.gov	88R0192
Ren Cooper	Applied Nuclear Physics	7296	RJCooper at lbl.gov	50C3396
Heather Crawford	Low Energy Nuclear Physics	5702	HLCrawford at lbl.gov	88RO192
Mario Cromaz	Low Energy Nuclear Physics	4187	MCromaz at lbl.gov	88R0192
Janis M. Dairiki	Special Projects	5673	JMDairiki at lbl.gov	70R0319
Paul Fallon	Low Energy Nuclear Physics	7018	PFallon at lbl.gov	88R0192
Richard B. Firestone	Nuclear Data	7646	RBFirestone at lbl.gov	88R0192
Brian K. Fujikawa	Neutrinos	4398	BKFujikawa at lbl.gov	50R5008
Jackie Gates	Low Energy Nuclear Physics	7847	JMGates at lbl.gov	88R0192
Kenneth E. Gregorich	Low Energy Nuclear Physics	7860	KEGregorich at lbl.gov	88R0192
Leo C. Greiner	Relativistic Nuclear Collisions	7274	LCGreiner at lbl.gov	70R0319
Wick C. Haxton	Nuclear Theory	6539	WCHaxton at lbl.gov	70R0319
Darleane C. Hoffman	Low Energy Nuclear Physics	4474	DCHoffman at lbl.gov	70R0319
Peter M. Jacobs	Relativistic Nuclear Collisions	5413	PMJacobs at lbl.gov	70R0319
Dan Kasen	Nuclear Theory	495-2683	DKasen at lbl.gov	70R0319
Spencer Klein	Relativistic Nuclear Collisions	5470	SRKlein at lbl.gov	50R5008
Volker Koch	Nuclear Theory	5323	VKoch at lbl.gov	70R0319
I-Yang Lee	Low Energy Nuclear Physics	5727	IYLee at lbl.gov	88R0192
Claude M. Lyneis	88-Inch Operations	7815	CMLyneis at lbl.gov	88R0192
Augusto O. Macchiavelli	Low Energy Nuclear Physics	4428	AOMacchiavelli at lbl.gov	88R0192
Howard S. Matis	Relativistic Nuclear Collisions	5031	HSMatis at lbl.gov	70R0319
Luciano G. Moretto	Low Energy Nuclear Physics	5510	LGMoretto at lbl.gov	88R0192
Grazyna Odyniec	Relativistic Nuclear Collisions	7128	G_Odyneic at lbl.gov	70R0319
Gabriel Orebi Gann	Neutrinos	8235	GOrebiGann at lbl.gov	50R5008
Larry W. Phair	Low Energy Nuclear Physics	7958	LWPhair at lbl.gov	88R0192
Alan Poon	Neutrinos	495-2467	AWPoon at lbl.gov	50R5008
Art Poskanzer	Relativistic Nuclear Collisions	5618	AMPoskanzer at lbl.gov	70R0319
Brian Quiter	Applied Nuclear Physics	6776	BJQuiter at lbl.gov	50C3396
Jorgen Randrup	Nuclear Theory	6157	JRandrup at lbl.gov	70R0319
John O. Rasmussen	Low Energy Nuclear Physics	6318	JORasmussen at lbl.gov	70R0319
Hans G. Ritter	Relativistic Nuclear Collisions	4138	HGRitter at lbl.gov	70R0319
Ernst Sichtermann	Relativistic Nuclear Collisions	5401	EPSichtermann at lbl.gov	70R0319
Frank Stephens	Low Energy Nuclear Physics	5724	FSStephens at lbl.gov	88R0192
Marie-Agnes D. Stephens	Low Energy Nuclear Physics	5384	MDStephens at lbl.gov	88R0192
Robert G. Stokstad	Neutrinos	4451	RGStokstad at lbl.gov	50R5008
James H. Thomas	Relativistic Nuclear Collisions	631-344-3918	JHThomas at lbl.gov	70R0319
Kai Vetter	Applied Nuclear Physics	4293	KVetter at lbl.gov	50C3396
André Walker-Loud	Nuclear Theory	5652	AWalker-loud at lbl.gov	70R0319
Xin-Nian Wang	Nuclear Theory	5239	XNWang at lbl.gov	70R0319
Howard H. Wieman	Relativistic Nuclear Collisions	495-2473	HHWieman at lbl.gov	70R0319
Nu Xu	Relativistic Nuclear Collisions	2951	NXu at lbl.gov	70R0319
Feng Yuan	Nuclear Theory	5626	FYuan at lbl.gov	70R0319