Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013
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Have a safe day!

Thursday, Feb. 14

9 a.m.
Electric Dipole Moment Workshop - One West

1 p.m.
Computing Techniques Seminar - Racetrack, WH7XO
Speaker: Michael McLennan, Purdue University
Title: HUB0

THERE WILL BE NO THEORETICAL PHYSICS SEMINAR THIS WEEK

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

THERE WILL BE NO ACCELERATOR PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR TODAY

Friday, Feb. 15

9 a.m.
Electric Dipole Moment Workshop - One West

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

4 p.m.
Joint Experimental-Theoretical Physics Seminar - One West
Speaker: Zheng-Tian Lu, Argonne National Laboratory
Title: Electric Dipole Moment Experiments with Project X

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a weekly calendar with links to additional information.

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Secon Level 3

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Flags at full staff

Wilson Hall Cafe

Thursday, Feb. 14

- Breakfast: Mexican omelet
- New Brunswick stew
- Ranchero steak tacos
- Stuffed porkchops
- Smart cuisine: baked penne with chicken and mushrooms
- Turkey BLT panini
- Assorted pizza
- Buffalo chicken tender ranch salad

Wilson Hall Cafe Menu

Chez Leon

Friday, Feb. 15
Valentine's dinner
- Spinach and strawberry salad
- Lobster tail with champagne butter sauce
- Spaghetti squash with scallions
- Roasted broccoli with red pepper butter
- Chocolate pots de crème with fresh berries

Wednesday, Feb. 20
Lunch
- Cornish hens
- Sage and onion stuffing
- Glazed baby carrots
- Pumpkin cheesecake

Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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Feature

Fermilab earns ISO 20000 certification for IT services

UL DQS Inc. CEO Ganesh Rao presented Fermilab with the official ISO 20000 certificate on Wednesday. UL DQS completed Fermilab's audit, leading to the laboratory's ISO 20000 certification in December 2012. From left: UL DQS VP of Sales and Marketing Hoss Parandeh; UL DQS Director of IT Services Subrata Guh; UL DQS CEO Ganesh Rao; Fermilab Associate Director/CIO Vicky White; Fermilab Service Manager Tammy Whited; Fermilab Director Pier Oddone. Photo: Reidar Hahn

Fermilab recently became the first DOE national laboratory to earn ISO 20000 certification for excellence in information technology (IT) service management processes. The certification was the culmination of a five-year program led by Fermilab’s Computing Sector.

ISO 20000, an international standard for IT service management, is an approach to providing IT services that focuses on the customer. ISO 20000 requires that every stage of an IT service—from planning to delivery to improvement—meets business requirements and customer expectations. The standard was developed to reflect the best practices for IT service management within the IT Infrastructure Library, or ITIL, framework.

“Since we began the certification process several years ago, our goal has been to deliver the best possible IT-related services to the lab,” said Fermilab’s Associate Director and Chief Information Officer Vicky White. “Moving forward, we will continue to create a better computing experience for employees and users.”

The Computing Sector received the official certification in December and a ceremony was held at the laboratory on Wednesday, Feb. 13.

Fermilab’s certification included 13 core services, including FermiMail and Network Services, as well as 15 processes such as managing changes to an IT service and having procedures in place to optimize the availability of services. Maintaining certification status involves annual audits and a plan to continually demonstrate improved services and processes.

“The ISO 20000 certification journey has truly been a team effort,” said Tammy Whited, Fermilab service manager. “The staff was open to change and embraced the concept of improving the end user’s IT experience here at the lab.”

While the majority of ISO 20000-related improvements at Fermilab are behind the scenes, one improvement in particular is quite visible: the centralization and standardization of the Service Desk. Now, everyone at Fermilab has access to the Service Desk to report IT-related issues. In fact, you are encouraged to report problems to the Service Desk so they can be logged, tracked and fixed.

More service improvements by the Computing Sector that will be visible to end-users are in the works—look for a new Web tool soon that will allow employees to reset their forgotten services, Kerberos and KCA passwords. And, as a continuation of the certification process, the next IT audit at Fermilab is scheduled for November 2014.

“Fermilab should be proud of this significant accomplishment,” said Michael Weis, Fermi site manager, Office of Science, Department of Energy. “ISO 20000 certification demonstrates the lab’s continuing commitment to excellence and the staff’s ability to build strong systems to improve performance.”

Deb Sebastian

In Brief

2013 Alvin Tollestrup Award for postdoctoral research

The Universities Research Association Inc. will make an award for outstanding work conducted by a postdoctoral research fellow at Fermilab or in collaboration with Fermilab scientists. Alvin Tollestrup will present the award during the 2013 Users’ Meeting. The deadline to apply for the award is Monday, April 1.

All Ph.D. researchers in non-tenure track or non-tenure track-equivalent positions at Fermilab or URA member institutions or at institutions collaborating in Fermilab projects who are within six years of the receipt of their Ph.D. (as of the nomination deadline) are eligible. The work for which the award is made must be performed in conjunction with a Fermilab experiment or project or under the auspices of the Fermilab Theory or Astrophysics groups.

For more information visit the Tollestrup Award website or see this award information sheet.

All nomination material should be sent in electronic form (pdf or plain text is preferred) to usersoffice@fnal.gov.

In the News

Documentary sheds new light on Fermilab scientists

From Kane County Chronicle, Feb. 8, 2013

BATAVIA – A new documentary sheds a new light on Fermilab scientists and the work they do.

"Fermilab: Science at Work" will be released on Tuesday. The documentary will be shown on Fermilab's YouTube channel and will be given away in DVD form to Fermilab visitors.

Fermilab contracted with Clayton Brown and Monica Long Ross of 137 Films to create a short film documenting life at Fermilab.

Read more
In the News

Minn. facility will analyze underground beam of neutrinos

From Minnesota Public Radio, Jan. 11, 2013

A new "far detector" facility in Ash River, Minn. is set to be partially running this spring. Researchers will be using the five-story building, which sits mostly underground, to catch tiny particles called neutrinos.

Listen to the radio story
Frontier Science Result: DZero

Deciphering the Higgs signature

The signature a Higgs boson event leaves in the DZero detector may not be unique to a single mode of Higgs production.

The search for the Higgs boson begins by looking for its signature, or the final decay products that are measured by the detector. Because it has many ways of being produced and decaying, Higgs boson events have numerous signatures, and a particular signature may be shared by multiple production and decay modes. After a signature is identified, it must be deciphered while considering all possible sources of signal and background. A recent result from DZero focuses on the study of one specific signature, consisting of an electron or muon, missing energy indicating a neutrino, and two or more jets of particles.

The analysis includes signals from many modes of Higgs production and decay, some of which have not been previously analyzed at the Tevatron, and updates one of the most sensitive searches for a Higgs boson decaying into two bottom quarks. To optimize the sensitivity to each source of signal, the analysis was divided into channels based on the total number of jets in the event and the number and properties of identified bottom quark jets. Special discriminants were built to separate the unique mixture of signals from the differing background contributions in each channel. In total, about 150 distinct variables were used to characterize the events across all analysis channels.

No significant excess of events was observed when considering this Higgs signature on its own, but its sensitivity will be an important contribution to the combined Higgs boson results from DZero and the Tevatron. The analysis team also presented the first results based on this signature for models where the Higgs boson disfavors decaying into quarks and leptons or has an enhanced production rate due to the existence of an undiscovered fourth generation of quarks.

The Higgs boson’s signature is not the only one noteworthy for this analysis. Two special names of undergraduates also adorn this particular paper, students who helped establish the new lepton, neutrino-plus-four-jets channel, earning them a place on the DZero author list for this result!

Mike Cooke

These physicists made major contributions to this analysis.
The DZero physics coordinators organize the collaboration’s active research topics and oversee the internal review process for all physics analyses before they are submitted for publication.
Photos of the Day

An icy discovery

Dried grass in the fields near the Fermilab Village looks ordinary from afar, but upon inspection are covered in geometric, crystalline ice structures left over from last week's freezing temperatures. Photos: Dan Johnson, AD
Announcements

Today's New Announcements

International folk dancing Mardi Gras French dance - today

Dancers needed for Fermilab project - Feb. 15

Barn dance - Feb. 17

Martial arts classes - begin Feb. 18

School's Day Out - Feb. 18, March 1

Employee art show applications - due Feb. 20

Fermilab Lecture Series: Engineering Biology - Feb. 22

Fermilab Gallery Series: Dios no Choro (Brazilian flute and guitar)

URA Visiting Scholars Program deadline - Feb. 25

URA Thesis Award competition applications accepted until March 1

Deadline for UChicago Tuition Remission Program - March 7

2013 FRA scholarship applications accepted until April 1

Interpersonal Communication Skills course offered in May

Additional professional development courses

Increased online access to scientific journals

Housing Office now accepting onsite summer housing requests

2013 standard mileage reimbursement rate

Scottish country dancing Tuesday evenings in Kuhn Barn

Employee discounts