Scientist Creates Opportunities for Others to do Good Work

Charlie Reece, deputy director of Jefferson Lab's SRF Institute, pauses from work for a moment to share a little about his personal history with superconducting radiofrequency. He holds a single cell from a niobium cavity.

A massive cultural shift throughout the United States led Charlie Reece, deputy director of Jefferson Lab's Institute for Superconducting Radiofrequency Science and Technology, to physics. Growing up in Oklahoma City, the son of an oral surgeon, Reece was among a group of students sent to a magnet school/science center at the beginning of his sophomore year in high school as part of desegregation efforts in that city.

The teacher to whom he was assigned for two years of chemistry and physics was, he recalled recently, "a lousy teacher." The class was completely self-study, but thankfully with a scripted curriculum that included films and experiments.

"There were only four of us in that class," Reece recounted, "so we did it all ourselves. I found it all pretty fascinating."

By the time he was admitted to Baylor University in Texas, he found himself concerned about whether he was sufficiently prepared for college-level physics classes, considering that he'd basically taught himself. No need to worry, though. He entered the honors program there, and in 1978 graduated summa cum laude and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

He had first encountered RF or radiofrequency cavities when he worked on a project between his junior and senior years. He found it interesting, but it didn't turn his head. He entered the University of Rochester in New York intent on focusing on quantum optics, and received his master's degree in 1980. Taking an opportunity to work under Professor Adrian Melissinos, he shifted to a general relativity research program that aimed to exploit the properties of SRF cavities. Work on this project included getting help from several researchers at Cornell University in New York who were later to become life-long colleagues. Reece completed his Ph.D. work at Rochester in 1983. His first postdoctoral position was as a research associate in the SRF group led by Maury Tigner and Ron Sundelin at Cornell from 1983-1987.

He met his wife, Kimberly, at Rochester where she was studying microbiology as an undergraduate. She had just started into a graduate program in molecular genetics when he was offered the position at Cornell. They faced what Reece (and the scientific world) commonly calls "the two-body problem," when a professional couple is challenged to find a good solution for both partners. Kimberly was able to transfer to a groundbreaking molecular genetics lab at Cornell.

In 1986, Jefferson Lab's then-Director, Hermann Grunder, recruited Ron Sundelin, Peter Kneisel, Reece and others from Cornell to come to Newport News, with the intention of having them on the team that would build CEBAF as the first of a new generation of accelerators. The group landed in Virginia in the summer of 1987.

"We had a baby on the way," Reece remembers. "My Cornell salary wasn't much, and my wife was in the thick of finishing her dissertation research. This seemed like a good place to come; it felt like a real calling, but the transition was scary."

A theme runs through Reece's professional life. "I like investing my efforts to create opportunities for others," he notes. And during his 24 years at the lab, he's had a wealth of opportunities to do just that.

His initial challenge was developing the technical infrastructure required to build an SRF-based CEBAF. He had prime responsibility for designing, developing, and then using the lab's cavity fabrication and testing infrastructure during the CEBAF construction. He has contributed to the characterization of performance-limiting phenomena and made significant contributions to the translation of state-of-the-art techniques and understandings into SRF operating systems. He led the push to obtain 5.7 GeV (billion electron volts) performance from the CEBAF cryomodules – originally designed for 4 GeV. He also later led the development and testing of the cavity design to be used in the CEBAF 12 GeV Upgrade.

In 1993, he was appointed to lead development of the lab's first comprehensive Environmental, Health and Safety manual. He had the idea of putting the manual on the then-emerging internet for easy access by staff. "I was presenting my idea," Reece recalled with a laugh, "and Christoph [Leemann, then associate director of the Accelerator Division] said, 'What's this web stuff? Is this a waste of time? Is there really any future in it?'"

Reece has served as SRF Processes and Materials Group leader and by 2000 was a senior staff scientist. He was named the lab's SRF Institute deputy director in 2002. He and Michael Kelly co-advise graduate students, work that Reece finds stimulating and satisfying. He is also the champion and "chief dreamer" for the custom web-based technical procedures and data management system, Pansophy, which is used by the SRF Institute and some other elements of the 12 GeV Project.

Reece has, he acknowledges, worn a lot of hats during his time at the lab.

His experience and interests span the full range of sciences and research necessary for SRF particle acceleration, from basic materials characterization and development to acceleration system design, fabrication, integration and operational optimization. He is currently managing some basic R&D projects on the electropolishing of niobium and the development of future alternative materials for SRF particle accelerators. Recently, he has also been managing the layout and process flow for the SRF portion of the new Technology and Engineering Development Facility.

 He looks forward to the lab's future. "By 2013, the facilities at Jefferson Lab for SRF will be peerless," he noted. "The world will be green with envy."

Reece and his family live in York County. His wife is now a Virginia Institute of Marine Science professor at The College of William and Mary, where she focuses her attention on molecular genetic analyses of shellfish species and their pathogens; their daughters, Carolyn and Katie, are both university students. Reece claims to have "farmer blood" running through his veins and takes good-natured pride in how well his gardening efforts feed the local deer, rabbits and raccoons.

He also serves on the national executive board of the Presbyterian Association on Science, Technology and Christian Faith, which joins clergy and professionals from various scientific fields to foster conversation and mutual understanding between different aspects of science, technology and theology. Reece also serves as a teacher and a tenor in his local Christian fellowship, KirkWood.

"All these pieces fit together perfectly well for me," he concluded. "I am quite happy to invest myself to enable other people to do good science and good work."

By Judi Tull
Feature writer