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Particle physicist Norbert Holtkamp has been appointed the new director of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He took up the position on 12 January, replacing Young-Kee Kim from the University of Chicago, who held the job on an interim basis following the resignation of Lia Merminga last year.

With a PhD in physics from the Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany, Holtkamp has managed large scientific projects throughout his career.

Holtkamp is the former deputy director of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University where he managedthe construction of the Linac Coherent Light Source upgrade, the world’s most powerful X-ray laser, along with more than $2bn of onsite construction projects.

Holtkamp also previously served as the principal deputy director general for the international fusion project ITER, which is currently under construction in Cadarache, France.

Holtkamp worked at Fermilab between 1998 and 2001, where he worked on commissioning the Main Injector and also led a study on the feasibility of an intense neutrino source based on a muon storage ring.

One of Holtkamp’s main aims as Fermilab boss will be to oversee the completion of the $5bn Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility-Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (LBNF-DUNE) at Fermilab, which is expected to come online towards the end of the decade.

LBNF-DUNE will study the properties of neutrinos in unprecedented detail, as well as the differences in behaviour between neutrinos and antineutrinos. The DUNE detector, which lies about 1300 km from Fermilab, will measure the neutrinos that are generated by Fermilab’s accelerator complex, which is just outside Chicago.

In a statement, Holtkamp said he is “deeply honoured” to lead the lab. “Fermilab has done so much to advance our collective understanding of the fundamentals of our universe,” he says. “I am committed to ensuring the laboratory remains the neutrino capital of the world, and the safe and successful completion of LBNF-DUNE is key to that goal. I’m excited to rejoin Fermilab at this pivotal moment to guide this project and our other important modernization efforts to prepare the lab for a bright future.”

Managerial experience

Fermilab has experienced a difficult few years, with questions raised about its internal management and external oversight. In August 2024 a group of anonymous self-styled whistleblowers published a 113-page “white paper” on the arXiv preprint server, asserting that the lab was “doomed without a management overhaul”.

Then in October that year, a new organization – Fermi Forward Discovery Group – was announced to manage the lab for the US Department of Energy. That move came under scrutiny given it is dominated by the University of Chicago and Universities Research Association (URA), a consortium of research universities, which had already been part of the management since 2007. Then a month later, almost 2.5% of Fermilab’s employees were laid off.

“We’re excited to welcome Norbert, who brings of a wealth of scientific and managerial experience to Fermilab,” noted University of Chicago president Paul Alivisatos, who is also chair of the board of directors of Fermi Forward Discovery Group.

Alivisatos thanked Kim for her “tireless service” as director. “[Kim] played a critical role in strengthening relationships with Fermilab’s leading stakeholders, driving the lab’s modernization efforts, and positioning Fermilab to amplify DOE’s broader goals in areas like quantum science and AI,” added Alivisatos.

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