A group of self-styled “whistleblowers” at Fermilab, the US’s premier particle-physics facility, is claiming that the lab is in “crisis” and that “without a complete [management] shake-up” it is “doomed”. Published in the form of a 113-page “white paper” on the arXiv pre-print server, the criticism comes as the US Department of Energy (DOE), which funds Fermilab, is preparing to announce a new contractor to manage the day-to-day running of the lab.
The paper has been written by disgruntled staff members, who in December 2023 set up a think tank to help Fermilab overcome what they called its “mission and physics impasses”. The authors, who are anonymous, say they have based their report on interviews and surveys of employees at the lab. It has, however, been formally signed by Giorgio Bellettini, who worked at Fermilab in the 1980s and 2010s, and neutrino physicist William Barletta from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
A Fermilab spokesperson told Physics World that the lab’s leadership is taking “seriously” the issues raised in the report and the current dissatisfaction among some staff. “They are assessing the situation and working to improve staff satisfaction,” the spokesperson says, adding that current director Lia Merminga conducted a staff climate survey when she took up office in 2022. That resulted in “some of the most pressing issues” being addressed and led to a “culture of excellence initiative” being established that will begin in full next year. Its...
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