FERMINEWS ends its run in June;
new magazine follows in fall
Just One More Time

by Mike Perricone

The one constant of science is change, and science communication must keep pace.

David Harris

After serving its readers throughout the particle physics community since 1978, FERMINEWS will take a final bow with the June 2004 issue. A new publication, tentatively titled SYMMETRY, will begin publication in the fall as a joint venture between Fermilab and Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, the two largest laboratories in U.S. particle physics—and that unique collaboration is just the start of what the staff of the new magazine hopes will be a compelling and unconventional presence in science communication.

David Harris has joined SLAC to serve as managing editor of the new monthly publication, coordinating efforts at both labs to create a forum where issues of science policy and science in society will be as prominent as issues of science in thought and science in the laboratory, within and beyond the field of particle physics.

Harris will be based at SLAC, but will spend considerable time at Fermilab overseeing the production of the magazine.

"Particle physics is entering a new area, where traditional accelerator physics is joining with cosmological physics, and that is changing the whole field," said Harris, who served recently as head of Media Relations for the American Physical Society. "We also want to use the magazine as a way for policy leaders to communicate with the physics community."

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

A theoretical physicist by training, studying at the Australian National University in Canberra and at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Harris moved into science communication as a free-lance writer and radio broadcaster for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and for Radio Australia, an international radio station. He joined APS in 2002.

Serving as publishers for the new publication will be Judy Jackson, head of the Office of Public Affairs at Fermilab, and Neil Calder, Director of Communications at SLAC. The new magazine will strive for an international base, with input from leading physicists and policy makers around the world.

Communications directors at the world's particle physics laboratories will be invited to serve as contributing editors, emphasizing the magazine's global reach.

The June/farewell issue of FERMINEWS will have special features from cover to cover, including a look back to its origins as The Village Crier. You won't want to miss it.