Shekhar Mishra
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Candidate for General Councillor
Biographical Summary
Shekhar Mishra is Deputy International Linear Collider Program Director at Fermilab and adjunct professor of physics at University of Delhi, India. He received his B.S. in Physics at Patna University, India in 1980, his M.S. in Physics in 1983 and Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics in 1987 at the University of South Carolina. He conducted his M.S. and Ph.D. thesis work in part at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF) and the Swiss Institute of Nuclear Research. From 1987-89, Mishra was a Research Associate in the Physics Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory. As a young research associate Mishra was also co-spokesperson of three Nuclear Physics experiments at LAMPF. He was visiting scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory and Fermilab. In 1989, Mishra joined the Fermilab staff as a Research Associate and played a leading role in design, construction, running and analysis of a B Meson experiment. In 1991, he became a staff scientist in the Fermilab Accelerator Division as a member of Main Injector design team.
Mishra’s research interests are in a broad range of accelerator physics, design, construction and operation, as well as in experimental High Energy Physics. In the Accelerator Division, he has held positions of Head of Main Injector Commissioning (98-99) and Head of the Main Injector Department (99-03). He played a central role in the design, construction and commissioning of two new accelerators, the Main Injector and Recycler at Fermilab. These two accelerators have met their design goals and are the backbone of the record-setting Fermilab accelerator complex today. While a member of the Main Injector Design team, he continued his HEP interest by pursuing B-Physics at Fermilab’s DZero detector and its upgrade (90-04).
In 2003, Mishra returned to accelerator design, this time to work on the design of the proposed International Linear Collider. A next-generation lepton collider would give physicists a new cosmic doorway to explore energy regimes beyond the reach of today’s accelerators. A proposed electron-positron collider, the ILC would complement the Large Hadron Collider, a proton-proton collider at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, in unlocking some of the deepest mysteries in the universe. He was initially involved in the design of the ILC Main Linac with the key issue of beam emittance preservation to maximize the luminosity. He played a central role in the ILC Main Linac technology selection by the International Technology Recommendation Panel. Since the selection of Superconducting Radio Frequency technology, he is leading the Fermilab R&D on superconducting cavities and cryomodules for future accelerators.
Mishra has served on many review committees, including the US Department of Energy, Spallation Neutron Source project review team. He chaired the Committee for the Joint University-Fermilab Doctoral Program in Accelerator Physics (97-00) and served as a committee chair for two Ph.D. theses in High Energy Physics from the University of Delhi. He enjoys working with students and research associates.
Mishra is actively involved in promoting international participation in accelerator research and most importantly collaboration on a future lepton collider. Since 2002 he has been actively involved in the development of collaboration of US and Indian laboratories on accelerator development. The collaboration is working on R&D for future colliders and on each nation’s domestic accelerator program. He is the US laboratories’ liaison for this Accelerator R&D collaboration. He is married and has two children, one of whom is bound for college this fall to study Biomedical Engineering.
Candidate's Statement
Since my high school days I have been inspired by science and most importantly physics. In high school, I enjoyed making small gadgets and making them work in the laboratory. Today I aspire to make large gadgets and make them work, so that they may help us understand the nature of this mysterious world we live in. While doing so I want to help develop and share these technological developments to help improve the quality of life of the people on this earth, and to leave our planet safe for the generations to come.
Physics is an international science by nature. It is of the utmost importance to me that we promote physics internationally, without any national boundaries. We need to work together as a society, as nation and as citizens of this world to encourage and train the next generation of scientists.
Funding for science throughout the world and in the United States needs serious attention. I am very concerned that the present US funding crisis is driving young minds away from physics. This is already having an effect, from high school teachers to university professors in the academic world, next generation scientists at national and international laboratories and talented scientists and analytical professionals from Microsoft, Intel to Wall Street. We need to work with government and industry leaders to communicate the long-term benefits of investing in science and technology.
