Mike Spata, who received a Ph.D. in accelerator physics from Old Dominion University in 2012, has been appointed director of the Center for Advanced Studies of Accelerators (CASA) at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News.

Spata succeeds his mentor, Geoffrey Krafft, a Jefferson Lab professor at ODU who has led CASA for the past seven years. Krafft played an important role in the $300 million power upgrade currently under way to take the Jefferson Lab electron accelerator from 6 GeV (billion electron volts) to 12 GeV.

Andrew Hutton, associate director/accelerators for Jefferson Lab, said Krafft requested relief from administrative duties that have limited his work in accelerator physics theory. Krafft is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

"Geoff Krafft has done an outstanding job" as CASA director," Hutton said. "Under his leadership, the 12 GeV design was finalized and accelerator physics support provided to the 12 GeV Project. Geoff has now asked to have his administrative load reduced so that he can spend more time on research, and I have agreed to his request."

Hutton also praised the work of Spata, who has been deputy director of CASA for the past year. "One of the things that Geoff points to with pride is his mentorship of Mike Spata," Hutton said.

Spata started his career at Stony Brook University before coming to Jefferson Lab two decades ago. He has held a variety of positions, "acquiring a solid reputation for his organizational abilities, particularly for his leadership in the renovation of the control room," Hutton said.

In 2007, Spata joined CASA to participate in the development of the beamline model and to manage the diagnostics, high-level applications, safety systems and extraction for the 12 GeV upgrade. About the same time, he began studies in accelerator physics at ODU en route to his Ph.D.

Spata's promotion is effective July 16. Krafft will become a CASA Fellow, with responsibilities including not only research, but also the mentoring of young scientists at Jefferson Lab.

"Geoff has done a great job leading CASA and I am confident that Mike will continue that tradition of excellence," said Charles Sukenik, chair of the ODU Department of Physics. "We are really delighted that a graduate of our accelerator physics program has been selected to be the next CASA director. We are equally delighted that Geoff will now have more time to concentrate on his cutting-edge research at Jefferson Lab and at ODU."

CASA was organized to pursue a broad program of theoretical and experimental research in accelerator and beam physics. The organization's primary mission is to generate, to investigate deeply and to distribute forefront knowledge about advanced accelerator and beam physics, especially that knowledge generated as a result of work at Jefferson Lab.

In 2009, ODU and Jefferson Lab collaborated to open ODU's Center for Accelerator Science, which is educating the next generation of accelerator scientists under the direction of Jean Delayen, former principal scientist for the Jefferson Lab accelerator division.

"We, at ODU, are certainly pleased to see Mike Spata, a recent graduate of the ODU Center for Accelerator Science, appointed to a position of such high visibility and responsibility in a National Laboratory of the U. S. Department of Energy," Delayen said. "We will also greatly benefit from having Geoff Kraft being able to devote more of his time and expertise to help our center grow by mentoring the next generation of accelerator scientists."