Nigel Lockyer

Nigel S. Lockyer
Photo of Nigel Lockyer.
Born	05 November 1952 Annan, Scotland, United Kingdom
Residence	Batavia, Illinois, U.S.
Nationality	American
Fields	Physics (high-energy particle physics)
Institutions	Fermilab
Alma mater	York University, Ohio State University
Notable awards	Panofsky Prize (2006), American Physical Society Fellowship, and Bryden Award (2014)

Nigel Lockyer is an American experimental particle physicist and current director of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), in Batavia, Illinois, America's premier laboratory for particle physics research, since September 2013.

Before becoming Fermilab's director, Lockyer served as director of TRIUMF, Canada's national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics, from May 2007 to September 2013, and was a Professor of Physics at the University of British Columbia and University of Pennsylvania. He was born in Scotland, raised in Canada, and attended graduate school in the United States.

Lockyer was born in Annan, Scotland. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1975 from York University in Toronto, later receiving his Ph.D. from Ohio State University in 1980. After receiving his Ph.D., Lockyer spent four years at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University as a postdoctoral research fellow working with Nobel Laureate Burton Richter, who directed SLAC from 1984 to 1999. At SLAC, he was a spokesperson of the Mark-II collaboration. In 1984, Lockyer began his 23-year career as a physics faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania. While at UPenn Lockyer also lectured on Benjamin Franklin, and taught a class with playwright Tom Stoppard on his Arcadia.

Lockyer is a particle physicist. At the University of Pennsylvania, his research focused on high-energy particle experiments at the energy frontier, with an interest in testing fundamental symmetries and studying the heaviest quarks. In recent years, his research has included experimental searches for hypothesized “supersymmetric” particles. While at UPenn, Lockyer developed his interest in the applications of physics to real-world problems; he worked with the Penn Medical School on proton therapy for cancer and detectors for medical physics and developed an interest in superconducting radio frequency applications to accelerators.