This page contains archived content on a former member of the Jefferson Lab leadership team.
Hugh E. Montgomery
Former Director
Director Emeritus
Dr. Hugh E. Montgomery served as Director of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) from August 29, 2008 - April 2, 2017. Upon resigning as Director, he transitioned into a role as scientist supporting the Jefferson Lab Directorate.
During his tenure as the lab's chief executive officer, Montgomery led the laboratory through the conclusion of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility’s 6 GeV era and most of the 12 GeV Upgrade Project, construction of the Technology and Engineering Development Facility, and many other facility and infrastructure improvements. These efforts have transformed the lab for decades to come, and will enable unprecedented research opportunities for the nuclear science community.
As Director, he was responsible for ensuring funding for the lab and for setting policy and program direction. In addition, he oversaw the delivery of the lab program and ensured that Jefferson Lab complied with all regulations, laws and contract requirements. Montgomery also was responsible for developing and ensuring relationships with Jefferson Lab's stakeholders.
In addition to serving as the third director in the history of Jefferson Lab, Montgomery was the president of Jefferson Science Associates, LLC. JSA, a joint venture between the Southeastern Universities Research Association and PAE Applied Technologies, which was formed to operate and manage Jefferson Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy.
An internationally recognized particle physicist, Montgomery began his career in 1972 as a research associate at the Daresbury Laboratory and Rutherford High Energy Laboratory in Great Britain. In 1978, he became a staff member at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, where he remained until joining the staff at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, IL, as an associate scientist in 1983. Montgomery spent the next 25 years of his career at Fermilab, occupying a number of positions of responsibility within the laboratory management before being named associate director for research at Fermilab, a position he held until joining Jefferson Lab in 2008. As associate director, he was responsible for the particle physics and particle astrophysics research programs at Fermilab.
Montgomery's research has focused on expanding the understanding of the fundamental components of our universe and how they interact. He was involved with muon scattering experiments at CERN and Fermilab, and in the DZero Experiment on the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. Active on the experiment for 12 years, he was co-spokesman from 1993-99, which covered the time of the observation of the top quark.
In addition to presenting numerous invited talks internationally, Montgomery has been actively engaged in many professional committees. Notably, as well as participating in two HEPAP Sub-panels, he served as: a member of the Review of Department of High Energy Physics of Tata Institute for Fundamental Research located in India; a member of the FOM Review of NIKHEF in Holland; a member of the APS Panofsky Prize Committee; chairman of the Elementary Particle Physics Review committee, Helmholtz Society, Germany; chairman of the Atlas Oversight Committee, STFC, England; member of the SLAC Policy Committee; chair of the Evaluation Committee of Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare and the Large Hadron Collider Committee, CERN.
In 2015, Lancaster University, Lancashire, England, conferred an honorary doctoral degree upon Montgomery. In 2016, he was awarded the prestigious Glazebrook Medal by the Institute of Physics, a society with a worldwide membership of more than 50,000 who work to advance physics education, research and application. He was recognized for “his leadership at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and distinguished research in high-energy physics.”
And in early 2017, Montgomery was awarded the Secretary of Energy’s Distinguished Service Award. The award was given to Montgomery by outgoing Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, and highlights Montgomery’s contributions to the research programs at the DOE national labs, both as a world-leading researcher and as a more than 30-year DOE national laboratory employee. The award citation read, “In recognition of more than three decades of leadership, distinguished service, and exceptional contributions to research at the high energy frontier of particle physics at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and to enabling world leading capability and unprecedented research opportunities for the nuclear science community for decades to come at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.”
A native of Great Britain, Montgomery earned a bachelor's and Ph.D. in physics from Manchester University, England.
Related links
Montage (Blog while Jefferson Lab director):
https://www.jlab.org/montage/archive/2017/03
July 5, 2016: Jefferson Lab Director Awarded Glazebrook Medal:
https://www.jlab.org/news/releases/jefferson-lab-director-awarded-glazebrook-medal
March 1, 2017: Jefferson Lab Director Honored with Energy Secretary Award:
https://www.jlab.org/news/releases/jefferson-lab-director-honored-energy-secretary-award