Friday, June 8, 2012
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Have a safe day!

Friday, June 8
2 p.m.
Joint Experiment-Theoretical Physics Seminar - One West
Speaker: Patricia Vahle, College of William And Mary
Title: New MINOS Results
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Joint Experiment-Theoretical Physics Seminar - One West
Speaker: Keith Ulmer, University of Colorado
Title: Recent Heavy Flavor Results from CMS

Monday, June 11
1 to 6 p.m.
Tevatron Impact Symposium - Auditorium

THERE WILL BE NO ASTROPHYSICS SEMINAR THIS WEEK

THERE WILL BE NO DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK TODAY

THERE WILL BE NO ALL EXPERIMENTERS' MEETING THIS WEEK

Click here for NALCAL,
a weekly calendar with links to additional information.

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Wilson Hall Cafe

Friday, June 8

- Breakfast: Chorizo burrito
- Smart cuisine: New England clam chowder
- Carolina burger
- Tuna casserole
- Dijon meatballs over noodles
- Bistro chicken & provolone panini
- Assorted sliced pizza
- *Brazilian beef w/ chimichurri

*Carb-restricted alternative
Wilson Hall Cafe Menu

Chez Leon

Friday, June 8
Dinner
Closed

Wednesday, June 13
Lunch
- Salad Niçoise
- Sponge cake w/ raspberry sauce

Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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Milestone

Director Emeritus Leon Lederman departs Fermilab

Leon Lederman
Photo: Reidar Hahn

Fermilab's Leon Lederman is leaving the laboratory that he served for ten years as its director and for many more as an internationally renowned physicist and science education pioneer.

The directorate is hosting a farewell reception for Lederman today at 3 p.m. on the 2nd-floor crossover. He leaves Batavia, Ill. for Driggs, Idaho. His last day at the lab is Monday, June 11.

Lederman's early award-winning research in high-energy physics brought him into national science policy circles and in 1963 he proposed the idea that became the National Accelerator Laboratory. In 1977 Lederman led the team that discovered the bottom quark at Fermilab. The following year he was named director and his administration brought Fermilab into its position of scientific prominence with the achievement of the world's most powerful superconducting accelerator, the Tevatron. He served as director until 1989.

Lederman is the recipient of some of the highest national and international honors bestowed to a scientist. His awards include the 1965 National Medal of Science and the 1972 Elliott Cresson Medal, given by the Frankin Institute. In 1982 he received the prestigious Wolf Prize, an annual prize given by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. He received the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the muon neutrino and was honored with the Enrico Fermi Award in 1992. And just this year, he was recognized for his distinguished scientific career with the 2012 Vannevar Bush Award, given to exceptional lifelong leaders in science and technology.

Lederman advocated for math and science education and for outreach to the neighboring communities. He initiated the Saturday Morning Physics lectures and subsequently founded the Friends of Fermilab, the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, and the Teacher's Academy for Mathematics and Science.

Read more about Leon Lederman.

Days before their departure from Batavia, Leon Lederman and his wife Ellen pose under an ivy-covered trellis with their faithful four-legged friend. Photo: Reidar Hahn
Special Announcement

Family Outdoor Fair - June 10

Insects and fossils capture the attention of kids and grown-ups alike at last year's Fermilab Family Outdoor Fair. Photo: Cindy Arnold

The Fermilab Family Outdoor Fair will take place this Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. Families are welcome to participate in a variety of hands-on activities, including sweeping for insects, netting for pond critters and going on a nature scavenger hunt.

The Fair will take place rain or shine at Lederman Science Center and is open to all ages. All events are free and no registration is required. For more information, call (630) 840-5588 or email edreg@fnal.gov.

Photo of the Day

Prairie Ranger program's very first Eco Ranger graduates

On June 6, eight students in Fermilab's Prairie Ranger program graduated as its first Eco Rangers. To graduate from Junior Prairie Ranger to Eco Ranger, students attend one year of pin sessions followed by a year going through the Eco Ranger program. Their activities include planting trees, broadcasting and harvesting seeds, cleaning woods and prairie restoration areas and volunteering at the Fermilab Family Outdoor Fair. Congratulations to all the graduates! Photo: Ryan Campbell
In the News

OPERA observes second
tau neutrino

From symmetry breaking, June 6, 2012

Neutrino results continue to pour out of the Neutrino 2012 conference in Japan.

Yesterday, the OPERA collaboration announced its second observation of a tau neutrino, a particle that’s extremely difficult to detect. The experiment, which made its first such observation in 2010, searches for evidence of neutrino oscillation, the process in which neutrinos transform from one type to another.

Several other experiments have shown that neutrinos can spontaneously oscillate as they travel long distances, but OPERA is the first to catch a muon neutrino changing into a tau neutrino.

Read more

Feature

MINOS reports new measurement of neutrino velocity

Scientists at the MINOS experiment measure neutrinos that travel 450 miles through the earth. They travel first through a detector at Fermilab and then through a second detector, pictured here, in a mine in Soudan, Minn. Photo: Fermilab

Scientists from Fermilab's MINOS experiment are reporting a new measurement of the velocity of the neutrino.

The neutrino, which is the lightest known particle, is expected to move so close to the speed of light that experiments use it as a point of comparison and expect any deviations to be extremely small.

Last September the OPERA experiment in Gran Sasso, Italy, announced a deviation much greater than could be explained by the theory of special relativity. The experiment later identified two possible effects that could have an influence on its neutrino timing measurement. In March, the ICARUS experiment in Gran Sasso measured the neutrino's velocity to be consistent with the speed of light.

The new MINOS measurement, presented yesterday by Fermilab's Phil Adamson at the XXV International Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics in Kyoto, Japan (Neutrino 2012), uses seven years of data taken by the MINOS experiment. This extends an earlier published study by MINOS using a factor of 8.5 more data.

Most importantly, the new MINOS study significantly reduces the systematic errors of its earlier work with detailed measurements of the behavior of the experiment's GPS timing system, improved understanding of the delays of electronic components at every stage of the MINOS detectors and the use of upgraded timing equipment, designed and implemented with the assistance of the National Institute of Science and Technology and the United States Naval Observatory.

Applying these improved understandings, the MINOS collaboration measures a neutrino arrival time for travel between Fermilab and Soudan, Minn., that is consistent with the expected travel time at the speed of light. The difference between the measured and calculated times is -15 ± 31 nanoseconds, indicating no observable effect. The measurement supports the theoretically predicted time of flight and is consistent with the ICARUS measurement.

"This measurement required MINOS to study the behavior of our timing system over a period of years of previous data," said Fermilab's Rob Plunkett, MINOS co-spokesperson. "Improved analysis techniques, intensive re-measurement of the detector and new timing standards from national timing experts all played a role."

A unique feature of the new result is the use of auxiliary timing detectors with very well-understood performance. After calibration at Fermilab, identical copies of these small scintillator detectors were used at MINOS's two detectors to characterize internal delays in a way that systematic errors in the detectors and equipment largely cancel.

The next phase of the MINOS experiment, which will search for a fourth neutrino, will also be capable of measuring neutrino velocities with a precision of between 2 and 5 ns.

Leah Hesla

Announcements

Latest Announcements

Cafeteria closes at 1 p.m. - June 11-12

Project Management Introduction class - July 23-27

Employee discount for Father's Day at GiftTree.com

Fermilab Family Outdoor Fair - June 10

Barn Dance and picnic - June 10

Tevatron symposium - June 11

Deadline for swim lessons - June 11

Nobel laureate David Gross gives public lecture - June 12

Scottish country dancing cancelled - June 12; moves to Auditorium - June 19

Fermilab Users' Meeting - June 12-13

Identity theft webinar: Don't take the bait - June 13

International Folk Dancing moves to Auditorium - June 14

New Perspectives is coming - June 14

University of Chicago Tuition Remission Program deadline - June 15

Adult water aerobics - begins June 18

Video series on six different world religions - starts June 19

DreamWeaver CS5: Intro class - June 19-20

DASTOW - June 20

Intermediate/advanced Python programming class - June 20-22

Fermilab prairie quadrat study - begins June 26

After-hours shuttle trial extended through June

Fermilab Management Practices Seminar - begins Oct. 4

Interpersonal communication skills training - Nov. 14

Garden Club plots available

10,000 Steps weekly participant winner

10,000 Steps iPod Shuffle winner

Outdoor soccer - Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6 p.m.

Pool memberships available

Join Walk 10,000 Steps-A-Day

Six Flags Great America discounts

Employee offer at Pockets

Dragon II restaurant employee discount

Changarro restaurant offers 15 percent discount to employees

Atrium construction updates

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