Council Chair elections

This page will preserve the council chair related issues, including its election and statements.

You must authenticate to Drupal to see the documents beyond this point.

2005 election

All statements are posted below. The original statement are attached at te bottom of the page.

Hank Crawford

Candidates Statement: Hank Crawford

I would like to serve as chairman of the STAR council to help the council expedite its business crisply in a collegial atmosphere characterized by mutual respect. Among the issues I consider needing attention are a rewrite of the bylaws to eliminate ambiguous language and to close the current loophole in the election procedure for our spokesman. I personally advocate collaboration-wide election of the spokesman and would urge the council to adopt this procedure in the future, just as our junior members are elected by the junior members of STAR.
The current bylaws stipulate that "any member unable to attend a given meeting can name a substitute representing the same institution", yet our council meetings are typically attended by only 30 representatives of the more than 50 members. I would encourage each member to make certain his or her views are represented at each meeting. I would ask that a secretary be appointed to make sure that minutes are available to the whole collaboration promptly. I would ask that the council encourage presentation to the council by any member of STAR on any topic of general interest to the collaboration. The STAR council should take a proactive role in addressing work-load related and other concerns that are slowing our progress in understanding and disseminating our data. Finally, I would continue and improve our policy of encouraging younger members to take leadership roles in all aspects of the STAR experiment.


Carl Gagliardi

Dear Fellow STAR Council Members: Initially, I did not plan to run for Deputy Council Chair. However, after I was asked to do so, I thought about it and agreed to be considered.

The Council is the governing body of the Collaboration. But the Council has only a limited ability to respond to issues promptly. Thus, most decisions are made by STAR Management with input from the Advisory Board, the Physics Working Group Convenors, etc. On the whole, this has worked extremely well, as evidenced by the very productive STAR physics program over the past several years.

However, in any organization as large as STAR, conflicts are bound to occur - and they have. At those times, the Council becomes very important, both as a rule-making body and as a quasi-judicial organization. If elected as Deputy Council Chair, my primary goals for the next four years will be (a) to work together with STAR Management, other Council members, and the Collaboration as a whole to identify and -- hopefully -- resolve potential problem areas before they boil over and become issues for the Council, and (b) to work with the Council to resolve those that remain in a fair and impartial manner.

Beyond that, I believe the next four years will be a challenging time for STAR. We have a broad spectrum of upgrade plans on the table that are essential to maintain the productivity and competitiveness of STAR in the LHC era, but the funds for upgrade R&D and construction are woefully inadequate for the task. Furthermore, when the LHC turns on a number of groups are likely to redirect some or all of their efforts away from STAR. Addressing these challenges will require detailed planning and prioritizing within STAR, as well as advocacy for STAR and RHIC in the broader community. If elected, I will work to ensure that the Council has a significant role in these activities that are certain to have a major impact on the long-term health of the Collaboration.


Huan Huang

Candidate Statement - Huan Zhong Huang

I will do my best to serve as a deputy council chair if elected. I believe these principles strongly and have greatly benefited by working with people who adhere to these principles from my previous experiences in experiments E864 and E896:

  1. We are in STAR for its science. The scientific creativity of people is the most valuable asset of the STAR. The STAR detector and its upgrade is our vehicle for discovery. I hope the council can work with the STAR management closely to further enhance STAR's scientific program and to pursue our detector upgrades. STAR can provide better training for young post-docs and students only if we are in an environment that is comfortable to ask tough questions to each other.
  2. I do not have to agree with what others say. But I should listen to what others try to say. It is very natural for a person to stay away from non-traditional and not-well-presented subjects. But if I truly listen to what others try to convey and think about the subject, often I come away with better appreciation of the subject and respect to the advocate.  A compromise can likely be reached if we have better understanding of each other's points of view.
  3. Broader perspectives will allow me make better decisions. But, I will take responsibility for whatever I decide to do. If elected, I am sure that there will be many things I have to do and learn at the same time. I am open minded and willing to work with everyone to push forward our scientific program in a pleasant environment.

Jay Marx

Candidate Statement- Jay Marx

The STAR Council is the governing body of the Collaboration and as such it plays important roles in supporting the Collaboration's efforts to do the best science possible.

In addition to electing the Spokesperson of the Collaboration, voting on membership requests of institutions who wish to join the collaboration, setting publications policy, and dealing with a host of issues involving the institutions in STAR, the Council can and should play an active part in assuring that
the Collaboration is well supported by the funding agencies, by Brookhaven Lab and by the institutions that make up the Collaboration.

The chair of the STAR Council plays a vital part in these activities. In addition to organizing effective Council meetings, the chair can support the Collaboration by working with the Spokesperson in the political arena, by keeping the Council active in ways that are constructive and by working with the Spokesperson to assure that the Council supports and doesn't impede the Spokesperson's efforts on behalf of the Collaboration.

I believe that STAR benefits most from having a Council chair who is fully aware and experienced with the sociological issues that impact large collaborations, who is politically effective and who is someone who will be listened to by the funding agencies, the Brookhaven management and the leaders of the institutions within the Collaboration.

There are many members of the Collaboration who meet these criteria and I'm pleased that a significant number of them are willing to put in the time and effort needed to effectively chair the Council.

In my own case, I believe that I would bring a significant amount of experience and good judgment to the position. After serving the Collaboration as Project Director during the construction of the experiment, I became a Deputy Spokesperson and then served as the first chair of the Council. I have many years of experience and success dealing with the DOE, NSF and I am well known and, I believe, trusted by Brookhaven management and the institutional leaders within STAR.

If chosen as Council chair I will devote my efforts to assuring that the Council best serves the needs and the goals of the Collaboration. I will energetically supporting the interests of the Collaboration as we seek to continue our strong record of scientific publication, secure funding in a timely way for our upgrades and look ahead to the longer term possibilities at RHIC II and/or the EIC.


James Sowinski

I am honored to be nominated as a candidate for STAR Council chairperson. I have been the Council representative from Indiana University for 3 years and a member of STAR for over 7. In this time I have come to see that, while the Council is not active in managing STAR on a day to day basis, it is nevertheless the key body in governing STAR. In particular, it decides the membership of STAR, the rules by which it is governed and chooses the leadership that does deal with the day to day details of managing and leading our success.
The latter is highlighted by the upcoming Spokesperson election. The Chair of the Council sets the agenda and runs the meetings, can call special meetings, nominates committees and sits on the Advisory Board. Thus the Chair becomes an important position in setting the tone for the functioning of the Council. If elected, I would be respectful of the time the Council devotes to the meetings in creating the agenda and running the meetings, while being proactive in making sure topics of concern to the group are addressed at the meetings. I view the election of our leaders as the most important function of the Council. As Council Chair I would work to ensure that these elections are collegial, fair and competitive events. I look forward to the bright future of the STAR collaboration and the small part I could play with this opportunity to be of service.

Gary Westfall

I am pleased to stand for election as Deputy Chair of the STAR Council. I feel that the major issues facing the STAR Council are
  • strengthening the publication process in STAR,
  • helping the Collaboration to deal with urgent needs (previously known as service),
  • helping STAR prepare for the future,
  • supporting and encouraging young Collaboration members.
I propose to form standing Council committees to deal with these issues. The STAR Council is a large, diverse group and these issues are difficult to deal with in the Council as a whole. As Deputy Chair, I propose to help the current Chair organize these committees. The Council meetings would then have more reports from committees concentrating in a specific topic, rather than long discussions with the Council as a whole. As Chair of the STAR Council, I would continue these committees.
I feel that I could effectively represent all institutions in STAR as Deputy Chair and later as Chair of the STAR Council.

2008 election

Please, find below the statements from the council chair candidates:

Hank Crawford

Hank Crawfod is from Space Sciences Laboratory University of California, Berkeley CA 94720

I would like to continue to serve as Chair of the STAR council to provide continuity through a spokesperson change and to complete the work begun in my first term. I believe that the Council will have to take a more active role in STAR operations, and we have begun this process with the adoption of detector subsystems by participating institutions. We are desperately short of experts for many subsystems and we need the Council members to take active roles in supporting the experiment. I am also very interested in completing the publication policy revisions undertaken by the Publications Committee. The institution review process should be tuned to concentrate on content rather than editorial issues, and the supporting document requirements should be completed to provide a clear, reproducible, paper trail. I believe we have an excellent future in forward and 4pi physics and I am optimistic that we will be able to continue our path of improving our physics capabilities with upgrades to the basic detector. I look forward working with our new Spokesperson as Council Chair as STAR continues its excellent work in probing the nature of the sQGP and discovering the underlying structures responsible for the spin of the proton.

Jim Sowinski

James Sowinski  is from Indiana Univ. Cyclotron Facility, Bloomington IN 47408  USA

I have now been a STAR collaborator for over 10 years.  Not being from the heavy ion community this has given me the opportunity to join a very vibrant group of physicists at a very exciting time for the field.  I have enjoyed working with new colleagues, developing new friendships and learning new physics in a large international effort. I have been very happy to see that STAR has operated as a true collaboration, recognizing that the spin and heavy ion program rely on each other for the strength of the overall program. A colleague asked me to run for Council Chair and I have agreed as an opportunity to further serve the full STAR community.  I am honored to see my name along side the respected collaborators on the ballot.

I now know many of the people in STAR to various degrees, but the members are constantly changing, especially our younger members.  So I should introduce myself.  I am a research scientist at Indiana University, and spent my first years with STAR constructing and installing the endcap electromagnetic calorimeter with my colleagues. I have been involved with spin physics essentially by whole career, but have always enjoyed the excitement ever present in the heavy ion community.  I have been Indiana's council rep. since 2002.  During that time I have served on a council committee to rewrite the bylaws and am currently serving on the spokesperson election committee.  I am one of the spin physics working group convenors and chair of the STAR talks committee. I have served many shifts in the Wide Angle Hall as detector expert, shift leader and most recently as period coordinator. I have been principle author on the two jet A_LL papers.

STAR and RHIC face a very challenging time. Budgets every year seem to provide hope and disappointment affecting running plans and schedules. Nevertheless planned upgrades present new physics opportunities even in the face of new competition, in physics and for our colleagues'  time, from the LHC.  STAR needs to address its manpower needs both for hardware, as evidenced by our "orphaned" subsystems and loss of experts, and computing and software.  There need to be additional opportunities for growth and recognition of experts to draw more participation of the collaboration to these activities vital to the strength of STAR.

However it is not the council chair's job to take on these issues directly.  The spokesperson is the frontline leader on these and other important issues. The council, led by the Chair, is now carrying out its most important task in choosing the new spokesperson. I see the Council chair's duties as to guide the council in working with the spokesperson on a common set of goals, remind the spokesperson of the collaborations concerns, and facilitate communication and consultation with the council necessary for the buy-in needed for the spokesperson
to be successful in addressing our challenges.

We will be moving forward with a new spokesperson and much of the early work of the council in the near term will be to work with them to form an effective management team.  Many of these appointments must be ratified by the council and this will need to happen in a timely manner with appropriate oversight.  There are details of the bylaws that we may need to consider altering to shape the team along with the spokesperson's and collaboration's needs.  After an appropriate period evaluation and feedback to the spokesperson on their progress will be an important role of the council to be organized by the Council chair. A number of years ago the Council established an advisory board to the Spokesperson.  This could be an effective tool for communication but has not met on the regular schedule originally envisioned.  by-laws. We need to make sure that the by-laws and practice agree with the desires of the Council and new spokesperson.

The council also has ongoing work, such as the publications policy, that need to addressed in a timely manner.  Such issues should not bridge multiple collaboration meetings.  We need to resolve issues discussed at collaboration meetings in a timely matter via email, phone conference or special meetings if truly necessary.  The goal should be to resolve the issues with the maximum opportunity for participation but as efficiently as possible.  We should look at resolving issues via email when face to face discussions are not required so that the meetings can be kept to a reasonable length. I am committed to attending and chairing all Council meetings.

In conclusion, I look forward to a vital future for STAR and offer myself to serve as Council Chair to further that end.

Gary Westfall

Gary Westfall is from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1321 USA

I would be honored to serve as STAR Council Chair.

I have been a member of the STAR Council for 15 years, representing Michigan State. I have served as chair of the STAR Council Chair nominating committee. I served as the Convener of the Event-by-Event Physics Working Group. I have served as Period Coordinator and Shift Leader. I was part of the team that constructed the STAR Electromagnetic Calorimeter. I also served as Chair of the RHIC Users’ Executive Committee.

I propose to help lead the STAR Council through the upcoming years. These years will see the completion and deployment of STAR upgrades as well as several important physics runs. The STAR Council needs to make sure that the Collaboration can carry out its physics program by seeking the support of STAR institutions and RHIC management. The STAR Council also needs to address the problem of operating STAR in the LHC era, including the loss of key Collaboration support.

If elected as Chair of the STAR Council, I will work with work closely with the newly elected Spokesperson to address these challenges. I will institute more frequent meeting of the STAR Council so that the Council meetings can be shorter and focus on fewer agenda items.

2012 election

The STAR Council Chiar election will be held on Wednesday evening at the council meeting of 8 Aug 2012.

2014 election

 The election will take place on November 6.

The candidate statements are attached below

2016 election

2020 election

2022 election

2024 election