NSCL Director Konrad Gelbke
Konrad Gelbke has been a recognized leader within the international nuclear science community for the past quarter century, helping to build the foundation for the groundbreaking concept of a next-generation rare isotope research facility in the United States. He has over 15 years of experience in managing and directing a complex, highly visible, successful user facility, chairing program advisory committees, and maintaining excellent relations with users groups in the United States and overseas. Gelbke has served as project director or principal investigator for over $220 million in federally funded research, construction, and laboratory operations.
Since 1992 Gelbke has directed National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) — the nation's foremost accelerator facility for nuclear physics research with rare isotopes. In this position, which carries the equivalent rank of a college dean at MSU, he provides the vision and leadership for NSCL's research and related instructional and public service programs, and serves as the primary NSCL representative and point of contact for the National Science Foundation (NSF), other agencies, and the international nuclear science community.
Gelbke is responsible for NSCL's annual budget, and directs and integrates the efforts of 300 employees, including 35 faculty members and 100 students. In 1992, he refocused NSCL's mission on rare isotope research, and has since led his staff in establishing NSCL as the best rare isotope research program in the United States. In 1997, following years of advocacy in support of the project to NSF, Gelbke began the development, negotiation, and implementation of the highly cost-effective Coupled Cyclotron Facility (CCF), which provides intense beams of radioactive nuclei via fragmentation. The coupled cyclotron project was managed by Richard York, the NSCL Associate Director for Accelerators, and was designed and built by NSCL faculty and staff. This upgrade was delivered on schedule and within budget, and has established NSCL as the nation's only laboratory that conducts rare isotope research with heavy ion beams in the pertinent energy range of about 30-160 MeV per nucleon. After the demise of plans for the Rare Isotope Accelerator, NSCL has developed plans for a less costly upgrade that would make it a world-leading center in rare isotope research for decades to come. NSCL's plans are described at www.nscl.msu.edu/isf.
Gelbke has instilled a disciplined conduct of operations culture at NSCL (in recent years managed by Thomas Glasmacher, NSCL Associate Director for Operations). The facility consistently meets or exceeds its operational performance metrics.
For additional background on Gelbke, please see complete lists of his:
Operation of NSCL as a national user facility is supported by the Experimental Nuclear Physics Program of the U.S. National Science Foundation.