(Photo by Diana Rogers)

by Jonathan Dorfan

Alongside this column is a letter sent to me by John Muhlestein, Director of the Department of Energy (DOE) Stanford Site Office. Please read it and take pride in your achievement. For the fifth consecutive year we have earned the highest overall rating of ‘Outstanding’ in the Annual Performance Assessment. John specifically asked me to "extend our congratulations to the Laboratory for this sustained level of performance."

Clear and accurate communication with the DOE is an essential element of our success at SLAC. By demonstrating the excellence of our work and the validity of our future programs we empower the DOE to make the case for increased support at the government level. This is why I place the utmost importance on our dialogue with the DOE. There are three primary processes by which the DOE assesses the Laboratory’s performance:

1) The Annual Assessment, which is based on our performance as measured against a set of metrics that are agreed to prior to the review process by SLAC management and the DOE. These measures span a wide range of scientific, technical, and management functions. A group of DOE subject matter experts make an in-depth evaluation of our performance relative to those metrics and derive an overall rating for the Laboratory. As input to the process, we at SLAC provide our own self-assessment against the metrics. I am pleased to say that not only did we retain our overall rating of ‘outstanding’, but we improved our rating in five of the thirteen evaluated categories.

2) Peer review of the Laboratory’s High Energy Physics (HEP) and SSRL scientific programs. In this process, the DOE brings to SLAC a group of peers from the research community to evaluate specifically the scientific programs. The HEP program recently had its annual review (the agenda, presentations and other documents are available at: http://www-conf.slac.stanford.edu/programreview/2003/). The consultants were highly complimentary of all aspects of the scientific programs, calling out in particular the quality of the staff who have maintained excellence in the face of extremely challenging budgets. There was strong support from the consultants for the importance to the national program of all elements of the work done here.

3) The Institutional Planning On-Site Review, which is presided over by the Director of the DOE Office of Science. The Institutional Review provides an opportunity for SLAC to present high-level overviews of the major scientific components for both the HEP and SSRL programs, infrastructure concerns and budget forecasts. This review is a vigorous present-and-probe process and provides an important opportunity for the DOE Office of Science and the leadership of SLAC to jointly grapple with the major issues that confront the Laboratory. The next Institutional Review will be in October.

These reviews are an opportunity to help the DOE to help us. The better the job we do, the easier it is for our DOE colleagues to promote our science in Washington. These processes provide a chance to showcase our achievements and if the job is well done, recognition follows. Recognition such as DOE Office of Science Director Raymond Orbach’s words on the new particle recently identified at BABAR (see article on page 1). "This impressive accomplishment reflects the success of a strong team of professionals at SLAC—accelerator physicists, computer specialists, engineers, administrators and many others—whose efforts were essential for the result. I would like to congratulate them all on their combined achievement."