Have a safe day!

Tuesday, Jan. 15

3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over

THERE WILL BE NO ACCELERATOR PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR TODAY

Wednesday, Jan. 16

3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over

THERE WILL BE NO FERMILAB COLLOQUIUM THIS WEEK

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

Ongoing and upcoming conferences at Fermilab

Take Five

Extended forecast
Weather at Fermilab

Secon Level 3

Flags at full staff

Tuesday, Jan. 15

- Breakfast: All-American breakfast
- Hearty beef barley
- Classic reuben sandwich
- Beef stew in a bread bowl
- Smart cuisine: Caribbean chicken skewers
- Grilled-chicken Caesar wrap
- Assorted pizza
- Mandarin pecan chicken salad

Wilson Hall Cafe Menu

Wednesday, Jan. 16
Lunch
- Balsamic glazed salmon
- Roasted new potatoes
- Brussels sprouts
- Lemon cheesecake

Friday, Jan. 18
Dinner
Closed

Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

Fermilab Today

Director's Corner

Frontier Science Result

Physics in a Nutshell

Tip of the Week

User University Profiles

Related content

Fermilab Today
is online at:
www.fnal.gov/today/

Send comments and suggestions to:
today@fnal.gov

Visit the Fermilab
home page

Unsubscribe from Fermilab Today

You survived 2012! Now go make the most of 2013

Rickey "Powerhouse" Winfield and Jack "Bonecrusher" Manprasert, CCD, hop on the treadmill at the recently refurbished Fermilab Fitness Center. The new mirror was installed in response to users' requests.

Many begin the new year with celebratory glasses of champagne, a stolen kiss from an admirer or loved one and perhaps a few final holiday cookies. In addition, the new year often means a few extra pounds around the waist line. Not to worry, however, because that's what New Year's resolutions are for. Fermilab has many opportunities, including a revamped gym facility, to work off that extra slice, or two, of pecan pie.

The Fermilab Fitness Center, located in the Village, now has a fresh new look with recently painted walls, new lockers in the men's locker room and reupholstered bench covers. Moreover, due to customer request, there are now mirrors in front of the treadmills so people can watch and easily converse with each other instead of staring at a blank wall while exercising, said Jeanne Ecker, Fermilab's wellness program specialist.

Fermilab also offers exercise classes including muscle toning, Butts & Guts, Zumba and kyuki-do martial arts for those who wish to buff up while learning some new moves in 2013. And for anyone who wants to kick off the new year by improving his or her cardiovascular endurance, Ecker will soon host, for the third time, a course focused on just that.

Called Walk 2 Run, the course lasts for 10 weeks, and over that time participants build their capacity to run long distances. By the 10th week, most participants can run consistently for 30 minutes, which is about equivalent to running 5 kilometers. The first two courses have been very successful, Ecker said, and she continues to receive e-mails from past participants who tell her about the 5K road races they now run. One participant, who took the class in the fall and continues to run, has lowered her cholesterol by 31 points.

"It's January, and people are motivated to get healthy," Ecker said. "Now is a perfect time to start a workout schedule, and I encourage anyone who's interested to check out the newly refurbished gym or sign up for one of our exciting courses."

For more information about Fermilab's wellness program, visit its website.

—Jessica Orwig

You elegant fowl

A great horned owl perched on a tree branch in Big Woods looks over its shoulder. Photo: Marty Murphy, AD

Heart of the matter

From Science News, Jan. 10, 2013

A golden age for the neutrino is dawning.

A few decades ago, these shy phantoms that flit nearly unfelt through the interstices of the universe seemed mere leftovers in the world of physics.

They outnumber all other particles of matter, whizzing away everywhere—many of them arising in droves from nuclear reactors and nucleosynthesis in stars. Their characteristics made them, to be sure, vitally important building blocks in the 1970s and '80s for theorists who put together the standard model of physics, describing how fundamental forces and particles fit together. Yet, for decades, neutrinos seemed nearly incapable of doing a lick of work. They were like clowns pouring from a circus car, entertainment for theorists but without important jobs in keeping the cosmos running smoothly.

Has the Milky Way lost weight?

From Science, Jan. 10, 2013

LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA—Suppose you stepped on the scales one morning to find that you weighed only half as much as the day before. You'd check the scales, right? In fact, a weight loss of cosmic proportions is exactly what happened when Alis Deason recalibrated the scales used to weigh our Milky Way galaxy. "We find the Milky Way is only half as massive as generally assumed," says Deason, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who presented her new estimate here at the 221st meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

Making our projects a success

Fermilab Director Pier Oddone

Leadership at the Intensity Frontier of particle physics doesn't just mean more particles for our experiments, it also means more projects for our laboratory. Because each individual Intensity Frontier experiment only tells part of the scientific story, a suite of experiments is needed to fully explore the landscape of new physics. For us to succeed as a laboratory in this new era we must become very good at managing and delivering projects on budget and on schedule. Any one project that does not deliver on its goals can affect adversely our ability to obtain additional projects.

We completed our last two projects, MINERvA and DECam, on budget and on schedule, fully meeting or exceeding their technical specifications. The much larger NOvA project is now nearing completion. From a technical standpoint, NOvA is progressing extremely well. It has driven a number of innovations in detector design and readout. The rate of assembly at Ash River, Minn., means that the far detector will be completed on schedule. The modifications to all four accelerators in Fermilab's complex are also going very well, and the machines will soon be put through their paces.

There is, however, considerable work left to do, amounting to about $57 million (approximately 20 percent of the total project cost). We are funded to do this work, but the remaining contingency—funds needed to cover unexpected costs—is very small. While we have retired most of the known risks, sufficient contingency is needed to cover those that remain, such as fluctuations in the price of oil, as well as unforeseen problems that can arise over the course of any project. Completing the project on schedule and on budget with the small amount of contingency left requires us to enhance our project management and controls.

We are proceeding to strengthen the management and oversight of NOvA. Effective immediately and for the next six months, Greg Bock will step down from his duties as associate laboratory director for particle physics to direct and oversee the project. Paul Mantsch, who directed the construction of the Pierre Auger Observatory, will also join John Cooper on the NOvA management team. Deputy Director Young-Kee Kim will fill the ALD for particle physics role during this period. After these six-month assignments, we will be able to establish NOvA's final cost and schedule with a very high degree of confidence, and we expect that the team will be able to return to their normal duties.

In addition to these specific short-term steps for NOvA, we are taking additional measures to ensure that our project management system is successful. I will be discussing these changes in future Director's Corners.

Drip ceiling installation in NOvA Near-Detector Cavern

Kiewit Infrastructure Co. is installing a drip ceiling in the NOvA Near-Detector Cavern. Photo: Cindy Arnold

Kiewit Infrastructure Co. is in the midst of installing a drip ceiling in the NOvA Near-Detector Cavern. The drip ceiling serves to catch anything that drips through the shotcrete ceiling above it, protecting people and equipment below from dripping water.

Fermilab Lecture Series - Building Bionics - Jan. 18

Gallery Chamber Series - Metropolis Quartet - Jan. 20

NALWO Armenian cooking demonstration - Jan. 24

Fermilab Arts Series - Tomas Kubinek - Jan. 26

January 2013 float holiday for timecard use

UChicago panel discussion on Higgs discovery - Feb. 7

2013 FRA scholarship applications accepted until April 1

Fermilab Management Practices courses available for registration

Interpersonal Communication Skills course offered in May

Abri Credit Union - member appreciation

International Folk Dancing Thursday evenings in Kuhn Barn

Indoor soccer

USA Athletic Club and Spa discount for employees

Interested in a Vaughan Athletic Center membership discount?

Employee discounts on AAA membership