Other Issues

A discussion was held at the Town Meeting to allow the community to voice their opinions and concerns on a variety of issues not covered in other sessions. The chairs of the user groups of three facilities (CEBAF, Bates, and LEGS) began the session with some of their perceptions followed by a presentation by John Negele representing the theory community. This was followed by a free discussion ranging over many issues. Some representative examples are listed below.

1. The user community in electromagnetic nuclear physics is just now emerging from a period of extensive construction of new facilities and instrumentation. The three facilities (CEBAF, Bates, and LEGS) have all benefited greatly from instrumentation developed by the user communities (polarized targets, focal-plane polarimeters, cryogenic targets, etc.). This situation represents a great strength in the US nuclear physics community, and continued support of the user groups is essential to allow further utilization and development of this important resource.

2. Particularly as a result of the influence of CEBAF in the Southeast (i.e., through SURA) there has been a healthy growth in the academic job market in this subfield. This is true both in experiment and in theory. A total of over 70 new university positions have been created associated with CEBAF. One novel feature of these positions is in theory, where the group at the laboratory has successfully arranged many joint appointments with local universities. There were some concerns expressed that this expansion has somewhat insulated the subfield from the general market for physicists in academia, and that the short-term increase in opportunities for students and postdocs as a result of this expansion may not be matched by opportunities for permanent jobs in the field in the future. It was noted that the limited beam time available at Bates in the last few years has generated an average of 5 Ph.D. theses/year. We will see an order of magnitude increase in the beam time available as Bates and CEBAF become fully operational in the near future, with a corresponding growth in opportunities for graduate students. The future demographic situation is not clear at the moment.

3. At Bates there has been a mismatch in the expectations of the users (generated in part by the optimistic encouragement of the laboratory) and the ability of the laboratory to mount and run experiments. There is much enthusiasm for the physics program at this facility, and a means must be found to rectify the present situation. The laboratory will run an operations review in the near future to address some of these issues.