Director's Corner
7 May 2009
 Barry Barish |
Garbincius joins GDE Executive Committee
The organisation of the Global Design Effort – the ILC’s management team – is more than a little unconventional. As Director, my boss is actually not a person, but rather two committees. Much of the work I “direct” is actually carried out as part of various laboratory programmes and is not actually under my direction. Nevertheless, the unconventional GDE organisation has been effective at producing a well-regarded reference design and now is well underway towards refining and optimising that design through a four-year programme to develop an ILC technical design. The heart of the GDE organisation and central ‘engine’ is an Executive Committee (EC) that works very closely with me on carrying out all important policy, organisational and operational matters. Today, I am pleased to announce that Peter Garbincius of Fermilab has joined the EC.
 Peter Garbincius, Fermilab, newly appointed to the GDE Executive Committee |
Several years ago, when I was first putting together our central GDE design team, I was very concerned with how to approach the difficult problem of doing costing that would be useful for a totally global project. As a result, I decided to create a high-level costing team of three experienced "cost engineers," one each from the European, Asian and American regions. This team was given the charge of agreeing between them on a global costing methodology, and then applying it to our Reference Design Report (RDR) costing.
I recruited Peter Garbincius as a member of that team. Peter flourished in that role and he was crucial to both developing our international costing methodology and to performing the costing for the ILC RDR. Our costing was given very high marks by a special high-level international cost review committee, who for example concluded in their review report that "the costing methodology is as good as can be done at the present time."
Peter Garbincius received his PhD from Cornell University and after a postdoc at MIT went to Fermilab, where he has been a scientific staff member for over thirty years. Peter has participated in a wide range of particle physics experiments, from deep inelastic scattering to charm particle production to searches for anomalous single photons. In the process he has became skilled at many aspects of conducting large-scale particle physics experiments. Through the years, among other responsibilities, Peter has had management responsibilities for Fermilab's Experimental Areas Department, for the Beams Division, and most recently served as acting Fermilab Associate Director for Research for Project Oversight. In addition, he has been dedicated to public outreach having initiated the Fermilab Meet-a-Scientist and continues to manage the Ask-a-Scientist programme. For the ILC, Peter had a leadership role in developing and implementing our international costing model and now is in charge of converting our costing to modern cost-schedule tools for the next steps toward a major international project.
 Peter Garbincius, far left, participating in his first EC meeting at TILC09 |
Joining the EC, Peter will now be taking on a broader leadership role within the GDE, while continuing his special role in our important costing activities. He will bring to the EC his intimate knowledge of cost issues, while at the same time, we will benefit from his perspectives on other important issues. Having Peter's cost-schedule knowledge in the room will become more and more important as we move towards a technical design report. We will need to take costs into account for various value engineering considerations, site specific design considerations, plug compatibility designs, etc when we produce a new "value" costing estimate. Peter's presence on the EC will help enable us to consider cost implications in making policy decisions on the new baseline design.
 The GDE Technical Design Organisation Chart showing the central role of the Executive Committee |
The function of the EC is central to almost everything we do in the GDE. The EC is a very active committee, meeting every week in a busy teleconference and in concentrated face-to-face meetings every few months, both at and between ILC workshops. The GDE itself is made up of the three regional directors, who give us full awareness of resource issues, the three project managers, who give us awareness of the technical work, and experts, who give us awareness of integration and costing issues. We plan to add experts in other areas in the near future.
Our simple but unconventional GDE management structure has proven to be an effective way to guide our global R&D and design effort. The EC centralises much of our policy decision making and provides guidance for the overall programme. Strengthening the EC will improve our ability to guide the GDE effectively through the technical design phase.
I want to personally welcome Peter Garbincius to the EC. He will be fully challenged in this new role, but I look forward to having his energy, persistence and skills as part of our deliberations. I am confident the EC will be better and stronger as a result.
-- Barry Barish