1. Introduction
This 5-year renewal proposal for the National Summer
School in Nuclear Physics recommends continuation of the
annual series begun in 1988. This school has been very
successful in providing experimental and theoretical
graduate students and beginning post-docs with a
perspective of nuclear physics as a research field. The
main purpose of the school is to help young researchers
gain broader exposure to the major themes of our field.
This is important both for researchers in small
university groups, which may have few opportunities for
learning about nuclear physics broadly, and those at
major laboratories, where the nuclear physics may be
primarily of one "flavor."
Some changes in the
school's governance are proposed: 1) We ask that funding
be sufficient to allow smaller university groups to
organize schools: previously the requirement that the
host institution cover all lecturer costs made this
difficult. 2) In spring, 1999, the Division of Nuclear
Physics of the APS agreed to make the school's steering
committee one of its standing committees. This step will
help the steering committee remain broadly
representative of the community.
The PIs will administer
the grant through the Institute for Nuclear Theory
(INT). The INT remains willing to help organizers with
school administration, as desired. This includes
producing a poster, handling mailing, and maintaining
data bases.
2. Motivation and History
The challenge of broadly educating young researchers is
a daunting one for fields like nuclear physics. Some of
our research groups are small. Others may focus on a
particular subfield, often because this enhances the
overall impact of the group. The field's evolution
towards larger facilities means more students work in a
user mode, often spending long periods at a national
laboratory where one subfield may be emphasized. Thus
the student may have very few opportunities to interact
with students or senior researchers from subfields other
than his own.
Under these conditions
students can go through graduate training and
postdoctoral experience without developing clear ideas
of the important outstanding questions in nuclear
physics outside of their specialty. Yet there are broad
physics themes and important techniques that do unite
our field: a student with too limited a perspective is
unlikely to understand this unity or to maximize his
personal scientific development. The experimental
physicist must know what properties of nuclear and
hadronic/electromagnetic/weak interactions are most
significant to measure in order to further knowledge in
nuclear physics or in other fields that require nuclear
physics input. The theoretical student must appreciate
better the important criteria for useful models, the
significance of reported measurements, and the relevance
of nuclear physics to sister fields, such as particle
physics, astrophysics, and condensed matter physics.
In Europe, the summer
school has proven to be a very successful way to broaden
the perspective of students. There are regular schools
at Varenna, Italy; at Erice, Italy; and many NATO
sponsored schools, including the one at Les Houches,
France. The UK Nuclear Physics Summer School and the
Nordic Nuclear Physics Summer School are held regularly,
and the Finish Summer School often has a strong nuclear
component. The Euro Summer School on Exotic Beams is
held in Leuven. In Eastern Europe, there are regular
schools in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
Elsewhere, the Brazilian Andre Swieca Physics Summer
School is primarily focused on nuclear physics, while
the ANU Australian Summer School often has a strong
nuclear component.
In this country the NSF
has sponsored regular advanced schools in the 1960's, an
ad hoc nuclear physics school in 1978 and 1981, and
several series since 1983. In particular, in 1988, a
community group - which included the PIs of this
proposal and some members of the current steering
committee - began the current series. Initially it was
supported year-by-year with volunteer organizers, who
had little administrative support. The difficulty of
this mode of operation contributed to the failure of the
1994 effort.
It was then that the
steering committee, with a strong endorsement from the
Executive Committee of the Division of Nuclear Physics,
opened discussions with the NSF and INT to provide more
stability to the school. The NSF agreed to provide a
5-year grant to support participant costs at the school.
The INT agreed to administer the grant at no cost and to
provide administrative support to school organizers:
poster production, mailing, data base services, etc. The
INT also agreed to act as a back-up host for the school,
if no other volunteer could be found, and to provide
supplementary funding to any schools held in the Seattle
area (provided by the UW Physics Department's Uehling
Fund). The INT hosted the 1995 and 1996 schools and is
renewing the above commitments for the lifetime of the
present proposal.
In recent years there
have been ad hoc schools in nuclear physics organized by
CEBAF (annually) and by Brookhaven (1998). (No BNL
school is scheduled for 1999.) These schools are
sponsored by the host laboratories and focus on research
issues relevant to those laboratories. There has also
been an annual school at TRIUMF, but it was discontinued
in 1999.
3. Requirements of the school
There are a number of important considerations to
produce a successful advanced study school. First, one
needs the best lecturers from the field. Second, the
school needs a corps of students who have prospects for
research careers and are at the appropriate level to
develop a perspective of the field of nuclear physics as
a whole. Third, the format of the school must allow
enough time for the students to reflect on the material
presented and to have thoughtful conversations among
themselves and with the lecturers.
3.1 Location
It is important that the school be held in an attractive
setting. The top researchers in a field are much more
willing to serve as lecturers, if the environment is
pleasant and conducive to informal discussion. This is a
major feature in the success of the European schools. If
the setting is nice, it not only attracts good
lecturers, but also encourages them to stay for longer
periods. The sites, organizers, and lecturers for the
current series are given below:
Another environmental
requirement of the school is that the students and
lecturers have many opportunities to interact informally
as well as in the lecture hall. An isolated setting with
housing and meals taken together provides the ideal in
this respect. This can be achieved with a conference
center in a vacation location, such as the 1996 Pack
Forest site near Mt. Rainier. Schools held on university
campuses can also meet the conditions, if careful
arrangements are made. For example, separate living and
dining quarters were provided by UC Santa Cruz for the
1990 school.
Recent National Nuclear
Physics Summer Schools tried to achieve these site goals
while, at the same time, encouraging a variety of
universities and individuals to take on the role of
organizer. At times, these two goals require a
compromise: one role of the steering committee is to use
its experience to optimize such choices.
The first school of the
new 5-year grant period (2000) has been approved by the
steering committee. It will be organized by Wick Haxton
and Larry McLerran at UC Santa Cruz. This is an example
of a site that provides, at reasonable cost, a somewhat
rural setting with common dining and housing facilities.
3.2 Lecture format
Previous schools have been successful with the following
format, which we propose to continue. The school is held
for a 12-day period, with lectures on weekday mornings.
Students arrive Sunday afternoon and depart midday
Friday. This allows five to seven lecturers to
participate, taking about 4 lectures apiece. At this
pace, the lecture material is presented in a way that
can be genuinely useful to someone learning the subject.
The students also have an opportunity to deliver
seminars on their own research. These sessions, which
have proven very popular, are organized and chaired by
the students, a choice that promotes discussion.
The school attendance
will be limited to no more than 50. This number is only
partly dictated by space and financing limitations. The
number cannot be made much higher and still preserve an
informal and lively atmosphere, in which the
participants ask questions and take part in the
discussion. With 50 students each year, there are also
enough places that no nuclear physics graduate students
near completing their Ph.D.s would need to be excluded.
3.3 The students
The school can only accomplish its purpose if it is
attended by students capable of becoming career
researchers in nuclear physics. An important part of the
organization of the school has to be the recruitment of
these individuals. It is essential that the organizer of
the school, members of the steering committee, and the
grant PIs make strong personal efforts to recruit
students by bringing the school to the attention of
their colleagues throughout the country. Other
mechanisms for recruiting include a poster (which is
sent to both individuals and research groups and
universities) and advertisements in the Division of
Nuclear Physics newsletter (both hard copy and emailed
to the membership), in the DOE DNP Monthly Activities
Report, in Nuclear Physics News (the European
newsletter), and in the INT's newsletter.
Students can only be
expected to attend if their travel costs are covered. In
past schools, cost sharing between the school and the
research group of the student's home university worked
out well to support the participants. With some
contribution to the support from home institutions, only
students who are regarded by their professors as ready
for the advanced school will be encouraged to attend.
Typically the NSF grant has provided about 75% of local
student costs, with the remainder plus the travel costs
coming from the student's research group/university.
3.4 Modifications for 2000-2004
A number of steps have been taken to improve the school
during the next five years (2000-2004). These are
summarized in the following:
a) To help the steering
committee remain broadly representative of the nuclear
physics community, it has been taken under the wing of
the Executive Committee of the DNP. As a DNP standing
committee, new members will be chosen by the Executive
Committee. The steering committee consists of eight
regular members serving four-year terms, plus the grant
PI. (Barrett will take this duty for 2000-2004.) Thus
the Executive Committee will replace two members each
year, generally choosing as replacements one
experimentalist and one theorist.
Each year the steering
committee will elect from among its first- and
second-year members a vice-chair, who will become chair
and past-chair in successive years.
b) To provide a longer
lead time for organizing future schools, the steering
committee will choose new organizers and sites two years
in advance of the school. This procedure was put into
effect this past year: the Haxton/McLerran proposal has
been accepted for 2000.
A request for new
proposals, which are received by the steering committee
chair, has appeared in INT's February newsletter for the
past five years. In future years we intend to use the
DNP newsletter as well. Recruiting efforts by members of
the steering committee are also very important and
effective.
c) The INT has
constructed a web site to advertise the school and to
serve as a collective memory for the community
(http://int.phys.washington.edu/NPSS/NPSS.html). It
includes a summary of the school's procedures, the
1995-99 NSF proposal, the programs of the past schools
(1988-98), the history of the steering committee, and
information for organizers. In addition, it contains the
poster for the current school. We will soon post the
final reports for the 1995-99 schools.
d) The INT will
endeavor to put convenient software in place so that
lecture notes and/or transparencies can be scanned onto
the home page. This will allow students to refer back to
the lectures they have heard and may allow nonstudents
to make use of the lecture materials.
We do not plan to ask
lecturers to write up their talks. This is a large
undertaking and would diminish our ability to attract
the best lecturers, who are often very busy.
e) Good sites and
organizers were found for the 1995-8 schools: The
University of Washington (Seattle) (1995); the Pack
Forest retreat (Mt. Rainier) (1996); Yale University
(1997); and Gull Lake (1998). The 1995-99 NSF proposal
required the host institution to cover the costs of the
speakers in addition to ancillary costs, such as a
reception, weekend outings, local secretarial support,
etc. The speaker costs can range up to $10K. As very few
smaller groups can afford this expense, it is not
surprising that the volunteer hosts for the 1995-8
(Seattle, Yale, MSU) were larger University groups.
In 1999 an attractive
site (UC San Diego) was found, but the organizer, George
Fuller, is a single investigator. He agreed to organize
the school only after the NSF expressed its willingness
to provide supplemental support.
We believe the 1999
school has to be the model for the next five years. It
will make the National Nuclear Physics Summer School a
true community activity, allowing both small and large
groups to act as organizers. It will increase the number
of attractive sites and good organizers that the
Steering Committee can choose among.
4. Leadership and oversight of the schools
4.1 The organizer
It is clear that a well-organized school requires a lot
of work and effort by some individual. This is the
designated organizer of the school. He/she prepares the
program of lecturers (subject to the approval of the
steering committee), selects the students to attend, and
manages the day-to-day activities of the school. The
organizer also has the main responsibility for
recruitment of students. (If requested, the organizer
will be assisted by one of the experienced workshop
coordinators of the INT, who will handle correspondence,
do financial projections, prepare and mail the poster,
handle advertising, and answer any travel or visa
questions.) The organizer will be chosen by the steering
committee from community volunteers, as described
previously.
4.2 Steering committee
The new procedures for the steering committee -
including the role of the DNP - has been described
earlier. The current and past membership of the steering
committee are:
