Herman White Retires
Herman White
Fermilab scientist Herman White began his employment at Fermilab in October 1974. Since then, he has worked on beamlines, managed projects, and designed detectors. Now he is retiring, and his last day is Dec. 30.
Herman began his career designing and commissioning particle beams, particularly for neutrino research as part of the Research Division’s Neutrino Department. Later, he was part of a five-member management team of the Research Division’s Headquarters. His duties included helping to manage all GPP and AIP projects within the division and reviewing agreements and MOUs with experiments. Throughout his career as a physicist, Herman has participated in about a dozen HEP experiments, covering studies in muons in the 1970s, neutrino oscillations in the 1980s, kaon studies in the 1990s, and more neutrino and muon studies in the 2000s.
Part of Herman’s job description has included the ubiquitous “… and other duties as assigned.”
At Fermilab, the ability to predict neutrino production at high energies was significantly improved and captured in the Stefanski/White parameterization. Herman created and started the Summer Student Lecture Series, which continues today. The staging and installation of KTeV, accomplished within six months, was managed by Herman. He coordinated the DOE experimental equipment loans to the JPARC project from 2003-2005.
On the national front, he has helped the UEC in visits to Congress and federal executive offices for more than 20 years. His life story video oral history assembled by The HistoryMakers organization was accepted as part of the Library of Congress permanent repository in 2014. He continues to advise the NSF, DOE, NASA and National Academies on physics.
On the international front, Herman has twice served as the USA delegate to the IUPAP International Conference on Women in Physics and continues his role as an advisor to the African School of Fundamental Physics (now in its 10th year).
On the lighter side, Herman was the first conductor of the Fermilab Orchestra for the operettas produced and performed in Ramsey Auditorium in 1984. The first movie he appeared in, “Cosmic Voyage,” was nominated for an Academy Award in 1997. Herman also generated one of the first computer electronic spreadsheets for the Fermilab budget submission in the late 1970s. (Microcomputers and Excel came years later!)
Please join us for a retirement reception for Herman on Wednesday, Dec. 11, from 2-3 p.m. in the WH2 crossover.