Subject: Re: Advance copy of State of HARP address Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2003 16:25:00 +0100 From: Alain Blondel Organization: Uni-Geneva To: Friedrich DYDAK CC: HARP-institute representatives -- Vladimir AMMOSOV , Marco APOLLONIO , Milla BALDO CEOLIN , Giles BARR , Maurizio BONESINI , Chris BOOTH , Stepan BUNYATOV , Craig BUTTAR , Maria Gabriella CATANESI , Enrico Di CAPUA , Ubaldo DORE , Jacques DUMARCHEZ , Rob EDGECOCK , Ugo GASTALDI , Simone GIANI , Sergej GNINENKO , Juan Jose GOMEZ CADENAS , Claus GOESSLING , Ghislain GREGOIRE , Vladimir GRICHINE , Alberto GUGLIELMI , Dimitar KOLEV , Lucie LINSSEN , Maria Teresa MUCIACCIA , Domizia ORESTANO , Vittorio PALLADINO , Jaap PANMAN , Fernanda PASTORE , Georgij SHELKOV , Petar TEMNIKOV , Roumen TSENOV , Francois VANNUCCI Friedrich, Friends, 1. I am in a state of shock. I have never, EVER!, seen anything like what is happening now in HARP in a particle physics experiment, and I have seen several. In almost 30 years and about twelve spokespersons I have never seen anyone of them losing dignity to the extent of entering in verbal/e-mail 'fist fights' with several of the collaboration members (including students). We need not enter the details of the heated dispute between the spokesperson and the analysis coordinator (and a few others). These things happen. As can be expected in such a situation, they are reported to us in a very partial and biased way. I will not enter the details or my own perception of how things degenerated very quickly in january, but I will make one simple common sense statement: it takes two to make a fight. Being the more senior person, the spokesperson bares the dominant responsibility: by his function he should be able to handle differences of opinions properly. As is commonly said: 'the smarter one is the one who stops first!' Given the level of heat at which things seem to have raised, it would seem to me that the whole collaboration board of monday next week should not be chaired by the spokesperson, but by another respected senior(s), who should also have the charge of proposing a different agenda, more in line with the propositions that came from the collaboration. I would also make the request that the 'vote of confidence' be removed from the agenda. 2. As for the procedures followed lately by the spokesperson, and for those he proposed as well, they constitute in my view a dangerous drift towards an autocratic management system and as such are inacceptable. The are also contrary to the HARP constitution. This states: > >II - Management Structures >* Steering Committee >The Steering Committee (SC) supervises the progress of the experiment, along >the lines delineated by the CB, prepares decisions and makes recommendations >to the CB. Members of the SC are nominated by the Spokesperson in con- >sultation with the Collaboration and elected by the CB. The term of offce >is up to three years. SC Members may be re-elected. Ex offcio Members of >the SC are the Spokesperson, the Contactperson, the Technical Coordinator (...) I dont think that any of the recent proposals or 'status report' sent to us by the spokesperson have been agreed by the steering committee, in fact I am quite sure that the two above ex-officio members did not agree with all or part of them. Our first mission now should be to review the composition of the steering committee. It would be good in this phase of the experiment where things will become more analysis-oriented that it comprised some other members -- including the analysis and software coordinators, but also some more senior members with experience in data analysis and heavy stakes in the success of the experiment. It is essential to return to a more collegial management of the experiment. 3. University of Geneva is keenly interested in the success of the experiment and participates very actively in the reconstruction programs. Despite my relatively small personal presence in the experiment, I have followed attentively the work and results of my students. I can say the following: as far as the large angle reconstruction is concerned the problem is not in the track reconstruction software, it lies in the underlying detector response. Blaming the software or the analysis for this deficiency is not correct. To be blamed are the imperfect conditions in which data were taken, 'Haste bears no blessing'. Cross-talk and many dead channels (and possibly more problems) are the source of extremely poor momentum or impact parameter resolutions. Some of these results are available in C. Morone's thesis. Solving this will be the result of tedious and patient work where one problem is unveiled after the other. A priority should be the nomination of a person responsible for the TPC (in succession of P. Zucchelli). I have heard in an analysis meeting in August the spokesperson insist that he would take care of the cross-talk 'personnally'. The problem is difficult, and this was seven months ago. With due respect, I dont think taking care of things 'personnally' all the time is a very sound management practice. Who will take care of the next TPC problem if it is presently hidden by the cross-talk? 4. Once again I believe that a rational discussion on the analysis road map and goals in which we exchange impressions and arguments in a constructive manner is the best way for us to make progress and not to get devided. Such a road map proposal was proposed a few days ago by Jaap Panman et al and represents what was actually agreed in the collaboration. It is a good basis for discussions. I am also sure that the organization of analysis can further improve with constructive criticism. I still request that the agenda as I suggested be reinstated. I agree however that the recent events require some of the more managerial actions stated above. I hope we can find peace again soon after these dark moments, and present beautiful results to the world in a timely fashion. Kind regards, Alain Blondel --------------------------------------------------------------------- Alain Blondel Alain Blondel Cellular: +41-79-201-4058 Fax: +41-22-767-94-25 Home: +33-4-50-40-78-70 Work: +41-22-767-58-27 Additional Information: Last Name Blondel First Name Alain Version 2.1