Newly elected APPEC Chair and General Secretary
We are happy to announce Carlos Peña Garay as the newly elected Chair of the APPEC General Assembly, who will start his term from December 2024, and Julie Epas as the new General Secretary of APPEC.
Carlos Peña Garay (left) and Julie Epas (right), the newsle elected APPEC GA Chairperson and General Secretary.
Carlos Peña Garay, current director of the Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc (LSC) in Spain, has accepted to become the new Chairperson of APPEC, following his election at the APPEC General Assembly held on June 5th 2024 in Amsterdam.
Carlos made major contributions to the Astroparticle Physics domain. Between 1998 and 2003, he contributed to the solution of the Solar Neutrino Problem, which proved that neutrinos have a finite mass. He also significantly contributed to other various areas of research, including high-energy neutrinos, low-energy positrons, neutrino-less double beta decay, and dark matter searches. Carlos’ leadership at LSC involves developing sensitive radiopure detectors and hosting experiments in underground labs to reduce cosmic ray background.
Carlos’ vision for APPEC over the next two years is to represent the Astroparticle Physics community views at their best in Europe’s decision-making process, for the long-term future of the field, and to be influential in strengthening the support and resources to execute them. A major responsibility will be to lead the preparation of the European Astroparticle Physics Strategy 2027-2036 by coordinating the community views and supporting all actions required by the APPEC Scientific Advisory Board to prepare the report.
To ensure a smooth transition, the Chairperson of APPEC will change in December 2024. Until the end of the year, newly elected Carlos Peña Garay will shadow the current Chair Andreas Haungs (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) to support him in coordinating APPEC activities.
During the same APPEC General Assembly, a new General Secretary was appointed. Julie Epas (APC Laboratory IN2P3/CNRS) replaces Katharina Henjes-Kunst (DESY). Julie Epas is a very experienced project manager in science and technology projects. Julie has been the project manager for the functional center of APPEC in Paris since 2021.
We would especially like to thank former Secretary General Katharina Henjes-Kunst for her intensive work and all her valuable contributions to the astroparticle community over the past years.