The ATLAS Collaboration at CERN welcomes a new member to its management team. Martin Aleksa (CERN) joins as Technical Coordinator for the experiment, picking up the torch from Ludovico Pontecorvo (CERN).

The ATLAS Collaboration is a constantly evolving scientific endeavour, with some 6000 members spread across 253 institutes in every corner of the world. This complex ship of physicists, engineers, technicians and other experts is steered by a management team.

Starting 1 March 2024, Technical Coordinator Martin Aleksa (CERN) joins the team alongside ATLAS Spokesperson Andreas Hoecker (CERN), Deputy Spokespersons Manuella Vincter (Carleton University) and Stéphane Willocq (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Resources Coordinator David Francis (CERN), and Upgrade Coordinator Benedetto Gorini (CERN). Taking on the roles of Deputy Technical Coordinators will be Michel Raymond (CERN) and Stefan Schlenker (CERN).

“We warmly welcome Martin to the team, where he will oversee the ATLAS detector for the crucial years ahead,” says Andreas. “We also express our deep appreciation for invaluable contributions to outgoing Technical Coordinator, Ludovico. Ludovico served in this role for eight and a half years, guiding the ATLAS detector through most of LHC Run 2, all of Long Shutdown 2, as well as half of Run 3. His pivotal leadership during these critical phases, which included the assembly and installation of the Muon New Small Wheel detectors, cannot be overstated.”

As ATLAS enters the final two years of LHC Run 3, groups are preparing to maximise their LHC data harvest. “From operations and trigger to data preparation and computing, all of ATLAS stands at the ready to take full advantage of the current record energy and luminosity operation,” says Martin. “The long shutdown period that will follow will see us tackling a major new challenge: the integration and installation of our ambitious, large-scale detector and infrastructure upgrades for the high-luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), scheduled to begin operation in 2029.” All this while ATLAS’ broad programme of physics analysis continues apace.

Meeting these objectives will require massive efforts from the entire collaboration — a challenge that ATLAS management will continue to support in every capacity.

Martin Aleksa

After his Masters degree, Martin moved from native Vienna, Austria to CERN for his PhD work in the ATLAS muon group which he finished in 1999. Following a “fellowship” on numerical field computation and magnet design in the LHC department, he moved back to ATLAS and joined the Liquid Argon (LAr) Calorimeter Group as CERN staff in 2002. Besides his heavy involvement with the calorimeter construction, integration, installation and commissioning, he also served as test beam co-coordinator and worked on electron performance studies and calibration. After two years as ATLAS Run Coordinator and deputy from 2010 to 2012, Martin moved back to the LAr calorimeter group and was elected LAr Project Leader from 2013 to 2019. Besides detector operation, calibration and data quality, the LAr group prepared and started to realise the LAr Phase-I and Phase-II upgrades during that time. From March 2019, he served as ATLAS Deputy Technical coordinator with main focus on preparations for the ATLAS Phase-II upgrade. In parallel, he worked on possible high granularity noble liquid calorimetry for future collider experiments. On 1 March 2024, he began his new role as ATLAS Technical Coordinator.