Physicist Persis Drell was named director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) in December 2007. She is the center’s fourth director and the first woman to hold its top job.

Drell grew up on Stanford’s campus, where the site of her childhood home is now a Law School parking lot. Her father is theoretical physicist Sidney Drell, a Stanford professor emeritus and former SLAC deputy director.

Drell became interested in matter’s basic building blocks during her freshman year at Wellesley. She earned a Ph.D. in atomic physics from UC-Berkeley and did her postdoctoral research in high-energy experimental physics. After spending 14 years as a physics professor at Cornell, Drell moved to SLAC in 2002 and has held a series of senior positions at the center since then. She is married to accelerator physicist James Welch and has three children.

The Daily spoke with Drell about the scoop on SLAC’s decrease in government funding, the atomic world of particle physics and the works of Charles Dickens.

The Stanford Daily: Have you faced any particular challenges as the first female director of SLAC?

Persis Drell: I’ve been facing challenges since day one, but they have nothing to do with being a female. We have a very difficult budget right now, so I’m dealing with significant layoffs. When I was acting director, the founder of the laboratory passed away, which was a very sad moment for the laboratory. Plenty of challenges, but they don’t have anything to do with being female.

SD: Can you tell me more about your hopes for SLAC in light of the recent budget cuts?

PD: The budget cuts are of course difficult to deal with, but we are in the middle of building a new facility, the Linac Coherent Light Source, which will be the world’s first X-ray free electron laser. It will be a frontier machine for science and I’m very, very excited about that program. That program did not sustain any cuts ... We have an on-site synchotron facility that’s doing very well. Even though there were cuts in particle physics, it is a very exciting time for the field and I am looking forward to outstanding science that will come from that.

SD: Do you think the cuts are reflective of the political attitude towards science right now?

PD: The budget process this year was unusual. It’s hard to interpret it as anything but the White House and Congress not working well together, and I think science was a casualty.

SD: Did having a physicist father influence your desire to go into physics?

PD: My decision to go into physics really came about in college. I would not say that I wanted to go into physics because my dad was in physics; I would say he was an obstacle that I overcame. [Laughs] Most kids don’t really want to do what their parents did; they want to do something different. When I was in high school I took a physics class — which I hated, by the way — and I would come home with problems. I would want to know the answer to part B and my dad would want to explain it to me, and I wasn’t interested. He wanted to make sure I really understood it, and I just wanted the answer.

SD: Your husband is a physicist also. Are your children interested in physics?

PD: Anything but! I think the oldest one is headed towards sociology and psychology; the middle one, I think he’s going to major in soccer; and the youngest one is only 13.

SD: I heard you play the cello?

PD: In a string quartet with my husband, who plays viola. We met playing string quartets and we’ve continued to play.

SD: Do you have time for any other hobbies?

PD: [Laughs] With this job and the kids, the music and probably hiking are my main hobbies. I love to read but I never have enough time to do it ... When I travel a lot, it’s great, because then I get time to read on the airplane. I was going back and forth to Italy for a while, so that’s when I went through a lot of Charles Dickens.

SD: Do you have a favorite Dickens novel?

PD: I think I love them all!

SD: Do you have any advice for aspiring scientists?

PD: Do what you love. Follow your heart.