Dr. Michael S. Witherell, Director of Fermilab, Named Vice Chancellor for Research at UC Santa Barbara

The head of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Dr. Michael S. Witherell, has been appointed vice chancellor for research at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A former member of the UCSB faculty, Witherell also will hold a faculty position in the Department of Physics.

"Professor Witherell will be a superb addition to our administrative team," said UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang. "He is a highly respected scholar as well as a seasoned administrator who has demonstrated an exceptional range of skills in his leadership of Fermilab, a prestigious research asset of the international scientific community."

Yang, noting that Witherell's earlier work in physics at UCSB helped bring national recognition to the campus, added, "Our faculty will be pleased to have Mike as a colleague once again. All of us at UCSB will be delighted to welcome Mike and his wife, Elizabeth, back to Santa Barbara."

Witherell's appointment as vice chancellor is effective July 1, 2005, pending approval by UC President Robert Dynes and the UC Board of Regents. The appointment is the culmination of an extensive national search and recruitment process.

External support for research at UC Santa Barbara has grown markedly over the past decade. Such funds now total some $160 million annually---double the level of 10 years ago.

"I am very pleased to be returning to UCSB as vice chancellor for research," said Witherell. "Since 1999 I have been director at Fermilab, one of the world's leading scientific laboratories, but for 18 years before that I was a member of the physics department at UCSB, and I left with a strong sense of loyalty to the university. UCSB is a great public university, excelling in both education and research. I look forward to working with the entire university community to increase support for research, which, I believe, enhances the quality of education."

Witherell is a leading physicist with a long and distinguished career in teaching, research, and public service. He has received numerous prestigious honors for his achievements in and contributions to science, including election to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Physical Society's W. K. H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1989-90.

After receiving a B.S. in physics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Witherell earned his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He became an instructor at Princeton University in 1973, and, two years later, was promoted to assistant professor. He joined the UC Santa Barbara faculty in 1981, became a full professor in 1986, and remained at UCSB until his 1999 appointment as director of Fermilab, located in Batavia, Ill.

Fermilab is the largest U.S. laboratory for research in particle physics and is second largest in the world after CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics. Fermilab's mission is the goal of particle physics: to learn what the universe is made of and how it works. Fermilab builds and operates the accelerators and detectors that particle physicists use in experiments at the forefront of research, and develops new technology for the experiments of the future. About 2,500 scientific users---scientists from universities and laboratories throughout the U.S. and around the world---carry out their research at Fermilab, which is operated by a consortium of 90 research universities called the Universities Research Association, Inc.

At UCSB, Witherell succeeds France A. Cordova, who resigned as vice chancellor for research to become chancellor of UC Riverside. Professor Steven D. Gaines, director of UCSB's Marine Science Institute, will continue to serve as acting vice chancellor for research until Witherell takes up his duties.

Witherell and his wife are the parents of a four-year-old daughter, Lily.

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