Manfred Letter Spring 2024

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to strongly support Manfred Paulini’s nomination for the Barbara Lazarus Award. I have worked closely with Manfred since joining Carnegie Mellon as an Assistant Professor of Physics six years ago. It is hard for me to overemphasize how much Manfred has meant to me in this time. He has been a father figure and a constant source of inspiration. Manfred has made me a more effective researcher, teacher, and colleague and a better person.

I am an experimental particle physicist working on the CMS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). CMS is one of two major experiments at the LHC; the other is called ATLAS. These experiments are composed of thousands of engineers and physicists who have been collaborating for over two decades. When I joined CMU I transitioned from ATLAS - on which I worked as a graduate student and a postdoc - to CMS, the big "cross town" rival. Moving experiments requires adjusting to new people, a different work culture, and unfamiliar (and often opaque) collaboration politics. This alone would be daunting enough, not to mention that we are talking about large collections of physicists – not typically the most graceful social animals. Manfred shepherded me through this transition with ease. He knew precisely how to cut through unnecessary red tape and enabled me to make the right connections at the right times. This dramatically increased my productivity and my group’s impact on the new experiment.

I work very closely with Manfred on research at CMU. I interact with him daily, discussing everything from big-picture planning for our shared DOE grant to mundane decisions about CMS software. We have formal group meetings three times a week to discuss ongoing projects with students and postdocs and meet informally with the other CMS faculty (Cremonesi and Dutta) weekly. Manfred’s energy and positivity are contagious. He is always encouraging with thoughtful guidance that allows us to grow both personally and professionally. Here are a few comments from Cremonesi:

Manfred has been instrumental in my career development even before joining CMU. He was one of the few senior scientists in our field who guided me through the process of academic job applications and interviews.  His presence at CMU was one of the main motivations for me to eventually choose CMU.

He takes his mentoring very seriously. Upon starting at CMU I quickly realized that it is very easy for a new faculty to get lost in the new commitments, like teaching, proposal writing etc. Manfred took me and other junior faculty under his wings, not only teaching us the job and how to juggle between all the different tasks, but also offering moral support in moments of discouragement and not shying away from sharing constructive criticism when needed.

In our field, Manfred has the reputation of being an extremely effective researcher with a leadership style that promotes the creation of a fun and lively working environment around him. Manfred has established a group where cooperation is at the center. He does that by investing on initiatives that go from promoting the co-advising of students to the organization of events devoted to team building.

Its actually quite rare to find a university with several faculty collaborating productively on an LHC experiment. Typically, egos get in the way, and groups splinter into individual efforts lead by individual faculty members. This is not the case at CMU. We have a cohesive group making a coherent effort within the collaboration. This allows our group to be much more effective than we otherwise would. Manfred is the core of our group and has been key to establishing the collaborative group dynamic. He encourages curiosity and innovation while ensuring that every team member feels valued and supported. This may be his most impressive and important contribution to CMU, but it is something that cannot be reflected in a CV or list of achievements.

Manfred and I are co-leading a project on campus that will build over 5000 sophisticated detector components to upgrade the CMS detector. This project requires years of planning and preparation before assembly can begin. Throughout the past year and a half we have hired and on-boarded personnel, designed and constructed a class 10,000 clean-room, and procured several major pieces of equipment needed for production. Manfred's deep knowledge of the university and department has allowed us to make rapid progress efficiently and effectively. Without his guidance, I would have had to divert precious time spent growing as a researcher and educator into understanding and navigating the university bureaucracy. Again, this is an example where Manfred clearly and directly improved my day-to-day productivity.

In conclusion, Manfred has skillfully guided me on matters big and small. He is caring, has good common sense, and mentors far beyond logistics and technical guidance. He is invested in the success and well-being of those he mentors (students, postdocs, engineers, and faculty). He has a remarkable ability to recognize potential and push individuals toward achieving their best, while always providing a safety net of support. He has created a legacy at CMU that will extend well beyond his immediate career. It seems to me that Manfred Paulini is exactly the type of person that we are looking to honor with this award. Manfred has set the bar that I strive to achieve with those I mentor. If someday I could be to a new junior CMU faculty member what Manfred has been to me, I would consider it a great accomplishment. Manfred has had —by far— the biggest impact on my career since joining CMU. I am lucky to get to work with him and would love to see him honored with this award.