Statement for Spokesperson Advisory Committee Election
As Snowmass (and then P5) approach, it will be critical for the DUNE collaboration to participate in the the particle physics community’s strategic planning process as a vibrant and smoothly functioning international collaboration. The collaboration is already large and complex, and it is becoming increasingly so.
The purpose of the DUNE SAC is to advise the spokespersons on matters relevant to the collaboration and experiment. In order to do this well, SAC members must serve as communication channels between the collaboration and the spokespersons. I know from chatting with DUNE members, especially early career ones, that they can sometimes find it difficult to navigate the collaboration’s organizational structure in order to solve particular technical (and also social) problems. As a member of the SAC, I will aim to ensure that communication channels remain open and that feedback can reach the spokespersons efficiently and effectively. I will also continue to encourage initiatives that improve the working experience of collaboration members and that advance DUNE’s science goals. I feel that the experiences of early career members, as well as diversity, equity and inclusion issues, require particular attention.
Bio:
Kate Scholberg is Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Physics and Bass Fellow at Duke University. She received a B.Sc. in Physics from McGill University in 1989. She then attended Caltech, receiving an M.S. in 1991 and a Ph.D. in 1997 for thesis research on the MACRO experiment at Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy. As a research associate
at Boston University, she joined the Super-Kamiokande collaboration. She was Assistant Professor at MIT from 2000-2004 before moving to Duke University. She was elected as an APS Fellow in 2013, and is a convener of the Neutrino Physics Frontier for the ongoing Snowmass community planning process. She is currently a member of the Super-Kamiokande, T2K, and SNEWS collaborations and is spokesperson of the COHERENT collaboration. She was an original member of the LBNE collaboration, and has been part of DUNE since its beginning, serving in a number of roles over the years. She is currently Low Energy Physics Working Group co-convener for DUNE.