Yesterday I attended my final meeting as chair and panel member of the Jyväskylä Programme Advisory Committee (PAC). This is the group that looks at proposals for experiments to take place at the accelerator facility and decides which to suggest to the laboratory to accept. The period of tenure on the committee is 3 years over which 6 meeting take place. Of course the last three years have been very unusual and we ended up running most of the meetings virtually. There is also the issue for the lab of what to do with the recommended proposals while people couldn’t travel to the lab during lockdown.
I enjoyed my time on the committee and learned a lot from the other members about some of the more technical and experimental details. It’s a bit disappointing not to visit Finland but also hard to justify the carbon cost of getting there for a meeting that actually works well virtually.
Now three new panel members will join as I and two others rotate off. I wish the new members well!