The following is a press release from SNOLAB from June 30, 2022. You can find the original here:
S
UDBURY : Dr. Jodi Cooley, professor of physics at Southern Methodist University and Deputy Operations Manager for the SuperCDMS Collaboration, has been selected to serve as the next Executive Director of SNOLAB.
“I am truly honoured to have been selected as the next Executive Director of SNOLAB,” said Dr. Cooley.
“I am already engaged with SNOLAB’s research community, and I have been impressed with the excellence of its science, capabilities and people,” Dr. Cooley said.
SNOLAB is Canada’s deep underground research laboratory, located two kilometres underground in Vale’s Creighton mine in Sudbury. SNOLAB’s science program focuses on astroparticle physics, specifically neutrino and dark matter studies, through its position as the world’s deepest clean laboratory.
At SNOLAB, Dr. Cooley will lead a team of more than 140 staff providing business, engineering, construction, installation, technical, and operations support to its award-winning research program. SNOLAB hosts more than 500 researchers from 24 countries.
“SNOLAB plays a unique and vital role in both the international astroparticle physics community, and in Canada’s research ecosystem, and I look forward to continuing this legacy of excellence,” Dr. Cooley said.
Dr. Cooley has been a professor, associate professor and assistant professor of physics at SMU since 2009. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. She was a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, before taking up her post at SMU. Dr. Cooley has been a member of the SuperCDMS SNOLAB Collaboration since 2014, and has served as its Deputy Operations Manager since 2019.
SNOLAB Institute Board Chair Dr. Kimberly Strong says that Dr. Cooley brings to the role of Executive Director all the necessary skills and background the Board was looking for.
“She is both a renowned researcher and experienced laboratory leader who offers a tremendous track record of success locally, nationally, and internationally,” Strong said.
“The Board is delighted to bring Jodi’s expertise to SNOLAB to guide the laboratory through many of the exciting developments on the horizon.”
Dr. Strong notes that Dr. Cooley arrives at SNOLAB at a critical moment in its short history, as it moves into a new Five-Year Strategic Planning period and prepares to usher in an exciting era of science and innovation with new research projects on the horizon.
The SNOLAB Institute’s Board of Directors would like to thank Dr. Clarence Virtue for his excellent service and leadership as Interim Executive Director during a period of transition for SNOLAB, Dr. Strong said.
Dr. Cooley will begin her five-year term at SNOLAB on August 1, 2022.
Media contact:
Michael Whitehouse
Senior Communications Officer, SNOLAB
(705) 690-5270