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Group Leader - Low Energy Nuclear Physics
Posted Nov 19, 2025 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 2026
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Likely interview questions for this role
Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.
About your past
Tell me about a time you led a research program through a flat or falling budget. What did you cut, and how did you explain it to the people affected?
What they are checking: Whether they have actually carried bad budget news to colleagues and kept their trust afterward.
How do you mentor a postdoc versus a mid-career staff scientist, and how do you handle an annual evaluation for someone whose output has slipped?
What they are checking: Whether they can give honest performance feedback to peers and juniors, not just encourage people.
Give me an example of how you built a strong safety culture in a lab or experimental area. What did you do when someone pushed back on a safety rule?
What they are checking: Whether safety is something they personally enforce and model, especially with accelerator beams and radiation work.
How would you make the group a place where a new scientist from an underrepresented background wants to stay and grow?
What they are checking: Whether their idea of inclusive excellence comes with specific practices rather than general agreement.
Tell me about the most important long-range plan or white paper you contributed to. How did it change what your group actually did?
What they are checking: Whether their long-term planning connects to real decisions and funding outcomes instead of staying on paper.
What would you do
LER is the largest group in the Physics Division, with 11 staff scientists and about 7 postdocs. How would you set research priorities across nuclear structure, astrophysics, fundamental symmetries and nuclear data when the budget can't fund all of them equally?
What they are checking: Whether they can make hard portfolio tradeoffs openly instead of spreading money thin to avoid conflict among senior scientists.
The group supports ATLAS users while also running its own research program. How do you keep user support strong without your own staff feeling their science always comes second?
What they are checking: Balancing a facility service mission against the group's own scientific output, which is a constant tension in this role.
DOE Office of Nuclear Physics sends an information request with a short deadline in the middle of a busy run cycle. Walk me through how you'd handle it.
What they are checking: Whether they treat sponsor requests as real priorities and know how to pull accurate answers from busy staff quickly.
You'll be working with the Physics Division Director and the ATLAS Scientific and Operations Directors. How do you handle a disagreement with a peer leader over beam time or staff allocation?
What they are checking: Whether they can negotiate with leaders who don't report to them while protecting both the group and the facility.
About the work
Where do you see the science opportunities with nuCARIBU and RAISOR beams over the next five to ten years, and what would you want LER to own?
What they are checking: Whether they have a concrete scientific vision tied to this facility's unique beams rather than a generic research agenda.
Describe a detector system you helped design or operate. What decisions did you make about it, and what would you do differently now?
What they are checking: Hands-on depth in instrumentation, since the group develops and runs advanced detector systems for ATLAS.
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As published by Argonne National Laboratory.