By Tiffany Whitfield
Gail Dodge, dean of the College of Sciences at Old Dominion University, has been appointed as chair of the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee (NSAC). The committee advises the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) on issues related to fundamental nuclear science research and is responsible for long-range planning as requested by the agencies. Dodge is the seventh chair since 2000, but the first from ODU.
The committee is comprised of scientists from across the United States and has representation from Europe, from the American Chemical Society, from the field of nuclear medicine, and from the American Physical Society.
Dodge will represent NSAC at the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Working Group 9: Working Group on International Cooperation in Nuclear Physics. She will also sit on the Nuclear Physics European Collaboration Committee.
"This is a richly deserved appointment for Dean Dodge," said Austin Agho, provost and vice president for academic affairs at ODU. "She is highly respected nationally and internationally for her research, and she has been an outstanding leader of the College of Sciences."
Dodge came to ODU as a member of the Department of Physics in 1995 and became dean in 2017.
"These are challenging times and with her experienced leadership and expertise in nuclear physics, Gail Dodge will be an excellent chair of NSAC," said Allena Opper, program manager for nuclear physics at the National Science Foundation. "I am looking forward to working with her."
From 2012 to 2014, Dodge served a two-year term as a visiting scientist and program manager at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Virginia. There she was responsible for the $17 million experimental nuclear physics program, including coordination with the Office of Nuclear Physics at the Department of Energy. Prior to working at the NSF she served as a member of the NSAC.
"Within the nuclear science community, Gail is, quite simply, a highly regarded leader who has helped shaped the direction of nuclear physics research for decades," said Timothy Hallman, associate director of the Office of Science for Nuclear Physics at the DOE. "As professor and dean at ODU, she is equally prominent and has been recognized by the state of Virginia for her outstanding achievements as a faculty. Having worked tirelessly for years with both DOE and NSF to ensure the U.S. nuclear physics portfolio is of the highest quality and merit, it is difficult to imagine anyone more suited to lead NSAC in its efforts to advise on the direction of U.S. nuclear science for the coming decade and beyond."
The NSAC is chartered under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The lead responsibility for the direction of NSAC itself, selecting members, putting together meeting agendas and developing charges is shared by the DOE and NSF.
For more information about the NSAC check out the DOE's website here:
https://www.energy.gov/science/np/nuclear-science-advisory-committee-nsac
