Photos from the 2007 Annual Users Meeting

We had a good audience, especially for some of the keynote events such as the public lecture.

George Smoot, co-winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics (along with John Mather), gave an evening Public Lecture on the first day of the Users Meeting to an overflowing crowd. His talk was titled

Echoes of Creation: The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation and the COBE Satellite

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This year marked the 40^th anniversary of the first Users Meeting (held April 7-8, 1967. To commemorate this anniversary, we heard a reminiscence by Edwin L. Goldwasser, founding deputy director of NAL under Robert Wison, of the Laboratory’s founding and the heroic efforts to bring a “Truly National Laboratory” the prairie of Illinois.

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Also as part of the 40^th anniversary of the first Users Meeting, we heard presentations from Jim Sanford (BNL), first chair of the NAL Users Organization (now Fermilab UEC) and first Assistant Director for Program Planning, as well as Prof. Norman Ramsey (Harvard), 1989 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, and founding President of Universities Research Association. Jim spoke about the need for a strong users organization and the partnership between users and the laboratory, and Norman spoke about his efforts to bring about consensus for the new national laboratory.

Left: Tim Scanlon (Imperial Colleage, London) was awarded the URA Thesis Prize for his work on b tagging and the search for the Higgs. Right: Yann Coadou (Simon Fraser University) was awarded the Alvin Tollestrup Postdoctoral Prize for his work on Single Top Production.

Ryoichi Miyamoto, Jennifer Pursley, Dag Gillberg, and Peter Dong (pictured above) each gave one of four “Featured Graduate Student Talks” at the Users’ Meeting. The talks were selected from over 30 nominations in a competition to feature the work of youngsters based on their scientific accomplishments and their ability to communicate their work.

Left: Bruce Winstein (U. Chicago), co-winner of the 2006 Wolfgang Panofsky Prize from APS, summarized his work on direct CP violation in neutral Kaons over 30 years at Fermilab. Right: Lyn Evans (CERN) discussed progress on the Large Hadron Collider.

Dr. Tony Chan (Director of Math and Physical Sciences at NSF) and Dr. Robin Staffin (DOE-HEP), offered frank commentary on how they saw the future of particle physics shaping up in the present budget climate.

Dr. Kathryn Beers from the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President discussed how science receives priority in the President’s budget, and about the particular goals of the American Competitiveness Initiative. She also talked about the role of basic research and discovery in maintaining a vital culture of science in the United States.

Left: Barry Barish (Caltech) gave an update on the ILC and the efforts of the GDE.

Right: Abe Seiden (UC Santa Cruz) gave an update on the P5 subpanel of HEPAP.

Left: Deputy Director Young Kee Kim gave a summary of the Steering Committee she leads which will make recommendations on the Lab’s future accelerator-based program by the August. Right: Director Pier Oddone summarized the state of the Laboratory and the near-term goals of managing the present program while planning for the future in a complex environment.

Students and scientists presented 72 posters during the poster session in the atrium at the end of the first day of the Users’ Meeting. The evening banquet, concurrent with the poster session, allowed users to enjoy good company, good food, and good science all at the same time.

The Barbeque in the Kuhn Barn was held on Thursday June 7. With bad weather sweeping over O’Hare, many users were able to stay longer and we had a ‘captive audience’. The record attendance meant that GSA members had to run to the grocery store several times over for more provisions!