Tobin Receives Fermilab's Peoples Fellowship

ECE alumnus J. Charles Tobin (Ph.D. '09), a former advisee of ECE Chairman Patrick O'Shea, has received the prestigious Peoples Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), a national lab located in Chicago that focuses on research at the frontiers of high energy physics. The three-year, tenure-track fellowship will focus on next-generation colliders and high intensity proton source research.

The Peoples Fellowship was created at Fermilab with the goal of attracting outstanding accelerator scientists early in their careers who have the potential to be leaders of the field. Peoples Fellows are provided with significant research support and have extraordinary latitude in choosing their research activities. The position is equivalent to an assistant professor at a university.

Charles earned his Ph.D. in May 2009, studying space-charge dominated electron beams. Charles expressed gratitude to his advisor, Prof. Patrick O'Shea, as well as Prof. Rami Kishek, Prof. Reiser and Don Feldman for their guidance and support. He also cited his participation in the Clark School's Future Faculty Fellows program, as well as his training at the International Accelerator School for Linear Colliders in Erice, Italy, as significant factors in helping him qualify and prepare for the Peoples Fellowship opportunity at Fermilab.

Charles' primary areas of research include next-generation particle accelerators and photoinjectors. As a graduate student under Patrick O'Shea, he worked on the University of Maryland Electron Ring project. This fall, he will start work on the A0 photoinjector and Project X at Fermilab.

Published August 11, 2009