STAR Deputy Spokesperson

The STAR Collaboration consists of over 700 scientists from 68 institutions spread across 14 countries. From 2017-2020 I served a three-year term as STAR deputy spokesperson. Collaboration bylaws describe the role of deputy spokesperson as follows:

Deputy Spokespersons may be appointed by the Spokesperson(s) subject to the approval of the Council. The Spokesperson(s) and the deputies must all belong to different institutions. The deputy Spokespersons provide support and assistance to the Spokesperson(s) in the management of the experiment and collaboration. They may be authorized by the Spokesperson(s) to act on his/her/their behalf and to represent the Collaboration.

Please also refer to this letter of support from Helen Caines (Yale University), one of the STAR spokespersons. My primary roles as deputy were to chair a committee to draft a novel procedure for carrying out a “blind” analysis for STAR data collected in 2018, advise management on work conducted in the STAR Cold-QCD/Spin Physics Working Group, represent the STAR collaboration in presentations to external advisory committees and at conferences, and represent the STAR collaboration for press releases pertaining to physics conducted within the Cold-QCD/Spin Physics Working Group. Additional duties were as follows:

  • Participate in weekly STAR management meetings
  • Participate in the organization of face-to-face STAR collaboration meetings
  • Participate in discussions with the annual Brookhaven National Laboratory Nuclear and Particle Physics external Physics Program Advisory Committee (PAC)
  • Review STAR collaboration talks for the annual Quark Matter conference
  • Participate in the drafting of annual STAR Beam Use Requests

2017-2020 STAR Management Team

Name Institution Role
Helen Caines Yale University Spokesperson
Zhangbu Xu Brookhaven National Laboratory Spokesperson
Jim Drachenberg ACU Deputy Spokesperson
Frank Geurts Rice University Deputy Spokesperson

Example Artifacts from My Work as Deputy Spokesperson

Reflections

I am grateful for the opportunity to serve on the STAR management team. It was in many ways a challenging role and stretched me in ways I had not previously experienced. Here, I reflect on some of those challenges and the ways they have shaped me to this point.

To be honest, I never desired a role on the STAR management team. STAR is an amazing collection of minds, but it is also a very challenging group of strong-willed individuals. Collaborators do not often withhold their opinions, and those opinions are not always as well-informed as the collaborator may believe. My default reaction, on the other hand, is to avoid conflict, whenever possible. Because of this, I have been quite happy to consider myself ill-equipped for management and have never pursued such roles for myself. Due to the immense amount of respect I have for her, I was honored by Helen’s consideration of me for the job. Yet, I was frankly more than a little shocked by the offer. Having now completed the term, I still do not enjoy conflict; but I am not “scared” of it, as I have been, at times, in the past. I understand that I can serve in these role, when needed. I also have a better appreciation of how to support those in leadership positions. The opportunity to learn from Helen and Zhangbu’s effective leadership has left a positive imprint on me that I believe will benefit my ability to serve in the future.

By far the most difficult role I had to play was as chair of the Analysis Blinding Committee, what we affectionately call the “ABC.” Before joining the management team in Summer 2017, STAR proposed to use part of the 2018 RHIC run to tackle a particular physics measurement by collecting data from collisions of two different “isobars,” species of nuclei containing different numbers of protons but the same number of protons plus neutrons. The external PAC recommended STAR perform this analysis “blind” to the particular isobar species. While blind analyses are widely used in science, to our knowledge, no heavy-ion experiment had ever attempted such an analysis. My role as deputy was to chair a committee to draft the recommendation on how to do it. I worked with a team of around 10 members to develop a procedure that would provide analysts what they needed but withhold the critical pieces of information needed to distinguish the two species. Once the recommendation was set in early 2018, we were asked to stay on to oversee implementation of the blind analysis, including the collection of the data during the 2018 RHIC run. Despite being rather transparent with the collaboration all throughout the process, we were met with heavy criticism and resistance from operation personnel. There was, at times, even strong resistance from Zhangbu, himself! It is completely understandable, of course. We were given the unenviable task of telling experts to do their jobs differently than they’d ever done them. Nevertheless, we pushed forward and oversaw implementation of procedures never conducted in the then-18-years of RHIC operation. I learned many lessons. I understand quite vividly how important it is for those in subordinate roles to feel supported by their leadership. I have experienced how important it is to do one’s job faithfully despite the level of resistance one may encounter. I also developed some thick skin, which I admittedly needed. I saw the importance of being honest with people, especially leaders, when in an advisory role. I witnessed examples of how to navigate disagreement–even strong disagreement–and still maintain productive working relationships. Helen and Zhangbu taught me a great deal about magnanimity and teamwork through conflict, and I am delighted to say that the success of the collaboration under their leadership speaks for itself. I am honored to have shared the ride with them.

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