Interview by James Schultz

This month, On Target talks to Steve Suhring, accelerator operations manager.

My degree is in physics, but I worked in the heavy-construction industry for years - building big things like waterworks and desalination plants. My company was up and down the East Coast. That's how I ended up in Tidewater. I play the fiddle, and I happened to meet another fiddle player who happened to work in the personnel department at CEBAF. That's how it all started about 13 years ago.

When I got here, the site was all trees. I worked in the construction group, then in project management putting the pieces together in the tunnel. When the installation was well underway, maybe 70 percent done, I realized the next big thing was going to be in the operations group, running the machine. I'm an active guy, sort of restless. So I said, hey, this is the next logical step for me.

Now I'm responsible for the planning and staging of all accelerator maintenance work, for all the shutdowns and the minor upgrades. I'm still a Crew Chief; I can still help run the machine. But I'm no longer on shift rotation. I do fill in for people when I'm needed.

Steve Suhring, accelerator operations manager, inspects the power feeds for one of the electron beam spreader magnets in the tunnel

The people I work with: the scientists, software, hardware and support folks are all top notch. They make my job easy. But what we get paid for is not the easy stuff. Although we all work hard to keep things on track, sometimes the unexpected happens, situations that you haven't exactly anticipated. That's when my job is most challenging and most satisfying.

I rarely get outside the accelerator fence after I get in around 6:45 in the morning. A lot of what happens after 9 a.m. is interrupt-driven. I go between long-term projects and preparation for the maintenance shutdowns. Things are seldom routine around here. In a normal day, when the accelerator is running, I strive for boredom. That to me is the ideal: physicists getting what they want with no interruptions.

Much of what I worry about is keeping the machine running and operating in the most efficient way possible. This is a taxpayer institution and I don't want to squander that money. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure JLab is a success. I think we're very close to having the best accelerator in the world.

One of the things I work hardest on is not being rude to anyone. In a situation like this that can be hard. There is constant pressure to keep things running, to fix things quickly when they break and to look fast and hard at the data to spot trends that could affect performance ... To go from 70 percent to 75 percent availability takes a huge effort. Each percentage point beyond that means everything has to work just right.

I play fiddle for the Friends of Appalachian Music in Williamsburg. At a dance, the fiddle sets the tempo for the band; it leads the way when changing to a new tune and establishes where we are, where we're going and what to expect. I think of our work in the same way, in a musical way. The rhythm is important, to get into a good flow, to have a beginning, a middle and an end. The challenge at the Lab is to try to encourage the people and the pieces to act together as one, to move in the same direction.

The machine is running very well. We are kind of in a steady state, which is a real luxury. We'll continue to make minor improvements as the opportunity arises. In the next three years I'd love to see the money for the planned machine upgrades. It's at that point we'll be working on installation and recommissioning. That'll be a real exciting time, similar to what we experienced six or seven years ago.

I've never worked in a situation like this, where people tell you exactly what's on their minds. It cuts through all the bull. It gets right to business. I love it. Whenever I have the opportunity, I tell people I have the best job at JLab.

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Updated June 27, 2003