Lia Merminga | |
|---|---|
| 7thDirector of the Fermilab | |
| In office April 18, 2022 –January 13, 2025 | |
| President | Joe Biden |
| Preceded by | Nigel Lockyer |
| Succeeded by | Young-Kee Kim (interim) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Nikolitsa Merminga |
| Nationality | Greece,United States,Canada |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Known for | Accelerator Physics |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility TRIUMF Fermilab |
| Thesis | A study of nonlinear dynamics in the Fermilab Tevatron (1989) |
| Doctoral advisor | Lawrence W. Jones,Donald A. Edwards |
Nikolitsa (Lia) Merminga is a Greek-born accelerator physicist. In 2022,she was appointed director of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory,the first woman to hold the position. [1] She has worked at other national laboratories in Canada and the United States.
Merminga grew up in Greece,where she attended all-girl middle and high schools. By the time she was sixteen years old,she knew she wanted to be a physicist,having been inspired by her family members,a high school physics teacher,and a biography of Marie Curie. [2] [3] [4] She received her undergraduate degree from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 1983,where she studied physics. She then moved to the United States to pursue a PhD in physics at the University of Michigan. There,she completed a Master's of Science in Physics and a Master's of Science in Mathematics and worked with doctoral advisors Lawrence W. Jones and Donald A. Edwards. [5] [3] [4] She completed her thesis,A Study of Nonlinear Dynamics in the Fermilab Tevatron, [6] using data from Fermilab's Tevatron particle accelerator [2] and completed her PhD in 1989. [5]
After completing her PhD,Merminga held a postdoctoral position at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in the accelerator theory group. [5] [3] In 1992,she joined Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility as a member of the Center for Advanced Studies of Accelerators (CASA). In 2002,she became director of CASA's beam physics group,her first managerial position. [5] [3] In 2008,she joined Canada's TRIUMF laboratory as head of their accelerator program, [5] [3] one of the most senior scientific positions in Canada. [7] There,she oversaw the design and construction of an accelerator that produced rare isotopes for use in medicine and nuclear physics. [3] She returned to SLAC in 2015,when she became that lab's Associate Director for Accelerators and a professor at Stanford University. [4] Around the same time,she took on another leadership role as a member of the U.S. Department of Energy's inaugural Energy Sciences Leadership Group from 2016 to 2017. [8] Merminga returned to Fermilab in 2018 as director of the lab's Proton Improvement Plan II (PIP-II) project, [2] the first particle accelerator project with major contributions by other countries to be hosted in the United States. [9]
On 5 April 2022,it was announced that Merminga had been appointed as the next director of Fermilab. [10] In addition to her role at Fermilab,as of February 10,2023,Merminga serves as a member of the Board of Trustees at Illinois State University. [11]
On 13 January 2025 it was announced that Merminga stepped down as director of Fermilab,effective immediately. Young-Kee Kim was named as interim director. [12]