The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has tapped David Moncton (below)--head of the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois--to lead construction of the agency's new science flagship, the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). The change comes after a January advisory panel report criticized Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, where DOE plans to build the SNS, for lacking the skills necessary to manage the $1.3 billion project.
Work on the SNS, which will create neutron pulses for studying the atomic structure and physics of materials, is scheduled to begin this year and finish in 2005. But reviewers worried that Oak Ridge's Bill Appleton, the project's original midwife, lacked experience with building monumental science facilities. Moncton, on the other hand, shepherded the $812 million APS--where he will retain a quarter-time position--to completion. That, together with his training as a neutron scientist, makes him "the right man for the job," says Brian Kincaid, former director of the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.
