Wednesday, May 7, 2014
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Wednesday, May 7

3 p.m.
Particle Astrophysics Seminar (NOTE DATE, TIME, LOCATION) - WH6NW
Speaker: Yeongduk Kim, Center for Underground Physics, Institute for Basic Science
Title: Projects to Search for WIMPs and Neutrinoless Double Beta Decays at the Center for Underground Physics

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

4 p.m.
Fermilab Colloquium - One West
Speaker: Calab Scharf, Columbia University
Title: Epic Astrobiology

Thursday, May 8

11 a.m.
Academic Lecture Series - One West
Speaker: Sheldon Stone, Syracuse University
Title: Quark Flavor Physics II

2:30 p.m.
Theoretical Physics Seminar - Curia II
Alejandro de la Puente, TRIUMF
Probing Radiative Neutrino Mass Generation through Monotop Production

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

4 p.m.
Joint Experimental-Theoretical Physics Seminar (NOTE DATE, LOCATION) - WH3NE
Speaker: Steve Olsen, Seoul National University
Title: A New Hadron Spectroscopy

4 p.m.
Accelerator Physics and Technology Seminar (NOTE DATE, LOCATION) - Curia II
Speaker: Kazuhiro Terao, Columbia University
Title: The MicroBooNE Detector, Beam Requirements and Status

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Wilson Hall Cafe

Wednesday, May 7

- Breakfast: crustless quiche casserole
- Breakfast: ham, egg and cheese English muffin
- Grilled reuben sandwich
- Smart cuisine: spinach and jack cheese enchilada
- Stuffed pork chops
- Zesty turkey pastrami sandwich
- Sweet and sour chicken
- Cuban black bean soup
- Texas-style chili
- Assorted calzones with marinara sauce

Wilson Hall Cafe menu

Chez Leon

Wednesday, May 7
Lunch
- Potato cod cakes with dijon tartar sauce
- Kale salad
- Lemon pound cake with blueberry sauce

Friday, May 9
Dinner
- Mussels with white wine and thyme
- Herb-crusted lamb chops
- Caramelized onion and horseradish mashed potatoes
- Sauteed baby carrots
- Banana profiteroles

Chez Leon menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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Feature

Sam Blitz earns awards for undergraduate work on ORKA

Arizona State University physics major Sam Blitz (right) was nationally recognized for his work on Fermilab's ORKA beamline. Professor Joseph Comfort (left) recommended he visit Fermilab to work on ORKA in 2012. The ORKA beamline design appears on the monitor. Photo courtesy of Joseph Comfort

Two years ago, Arizona State University sophomore Sam Blitz joined Fermilab's ORKA experiment for the summer. Taking on an assignment traditionally reserved for students at the graduate level, he started not by getting his feet wet, but by diving in head first.

"I just sat down and read the manual," said Blitz about his first days. He and a fellow student charged through two tomes on simulation software totaling 450 pages.

Now a junior, Blitz has been recognized nationally for his work on ORKA. The competitive Barry Goldwater Scholarship program conferred him with an honorable mention. His project also won the ASU Physics Department undergraduate symposium, earning him a $1,000 award.

"He's done a tremendous job at the level that someone far more advanced would be asked to do," said ASU physics professor Joseph Comfort, who recommended Blitz go to Fermilab to work on ORKA in 2012.

Blitz's task was to help design the ORKA positive-kaon beamline. The kaon beam that arrives at the detector must be as pure as possible. Producing a pure kaon beam is a nasty problem, one scientists have been working on for decades using simulation programs.

Blitz improved on those programs. He got cozy with the simulation tools, learning the software languages and becoming conversant enough to develop techniques for modeling ORKA's beamline magnets. His contributions, by any standard, were substantial.

His work culminated in a publication, a technical memo, which he co-authored with ASU student Riley Molloy.

"In the old days, the graduate student would go to school, take one or two years of classes, then finally get around to doing research. Sam was doing it as a sophomore," Comfort said. "He's the expert in the collaboration for this particular beamline design."

Blitz returned to Fermilab again in the summer of 2013, continuing his research at ASU during the school year.

"It's a very nice thing when an undergraduate becomes part of the effort and stays with us long enough to become part of the team," said Fermilab scientist Doug Jensen, Blitz's advisor at the lab. "Students can learn their way into the world of research, which is outside the textbook. Sam's been part of that. He's one of us now."

Blitz has wanted to be a scientist for as long as he can remember, he said. Now he's improving the beamline for an important particle physics project that he also happens to enjoy.

"It's a problem-solving task that doesn't seem to ever finish — I always have problems to solve," Blitz said. "I think that's a good thing."

Leah Hesla

Photo of the Day

A welder's work

Technical Division's Mike Cooper welds a 12-inch pipe for the SeaQuest berm pipe repair. Environmental conditions for the pipe required a special stainless steel alloy called Duplex 2205, which has higher corrosion resistance than 316 stainless. Photo: Ryan Schultz, AD
In the News

Knock on steel

From Outokumpu's Forever magazine, April 2014

​For nearly four decades, an aging 230-meter-long carbon steel pipe buried in soil with high chloride levels was in need of replacement at Fermilab, America's premier national laboratory for particle physics research.

Located 40 miles west of Chicago, Illinois, Fermilab operates large particle accelerators and is an R&D center for superconducting radio-frequency cavities.

"The carbon steel pipe had been there 40 years and was experiencing vacuum problems," says Ryan Schultz, Project Engineer.

Read more

In the News

Universe expanding symmetrically, real-time analysis shows

From Space.com, April 29, 2014

The universe is expanding — and it is doing so at the same rate in all directions, according to new measurements that appear to confirm the standard model of cosmology.

Astrophysicist Jeremy Darling of the University of Colorado Boulder came to this conclusion after employing a research strategy known as "real-time cosmology," which seeks out the tiny changes in the universe that occur over human timescales.

The idea of "real-time cosmology" was proposed in two separate papers by Alan Sandage in 1962 and by Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loebin 1998. The possibility of seeing the redshifts of sources changing in real time is thus called the "Sandage-Loeb Test".

Read more

From the Technical Division

More than a Magnet Factory

David Harding

David Harding, acting head of the Technical Division, wrote this column.

Back in 1983, when I first really became aware of Technical Division, then named Technical Support Section, it was generally referred to as The Magnet Factory. That was indeed an apt description, though not fully reflecting the R&D and design aspects that had led to the construction of well over 1,000 superconducting magnets for the Tevatron. At the time, I was focused on the conventional magnets being designed, built and tested for the Antiproton Source. I was a customer and didn't see any further than that.

I moved from Accelerator Division to Technical Division in 1997, and as with any transition from onlooker to insider, my understanding of TD expanded dramatically. When people ask me what TD does, I still sometimes say offhandedly, "We build big stuff for accelerators." But then I must elaborate.

TD has certainly seen a long string of other magnet projects, big and small, since 1983. But there have also been a couple of big detector projects in that time — the CDF endcap calorimeter upgrade and the CMS endcap muon chamber construction. More recently, TD has taken a major role in superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavity development, to the point that we are now among the world leaders in the field.

Because we need to wring every bit of possible performance from the magnets and the SRF accelerator cavities, we also must do fundamental research and development on the underlying material properties, along with detailed engineering design and studies. The materials research addresses basic material sciences issues, but it is always focused on real accelerators. Our target is not necessarily to set abstract world records, but rather to build the very best accelerator components and make them reliably. The most effective path to higher, repeatable performance is through a basic understanding of the materials.

In the last year TD scientists have made significant breakthroughs in processing both superconducting wires and SRF cavities for the next generations of accelerators. The wire processing R&D has a long way to go — perhaps a decade of work — before we use it to build whole, useful magnets. This makes it important to continue our research to prepare for the future. The SRF processing techniques also require further intense study before we are confident that we can reliably achieve the promising results seen so far. Still, we expect to employ the new SRF processing techniques in cavities for cryomodules that will be built in the next several years for use in real accelerators.

We do build big stuff for accelerators, but like the name "The Magnet Factory," the description understates the breadth and depth of our work. We draw strongly on multiple research areas to design, construct and test components that will be part of the next world-class accelerators.

Safety Update

ESH&Q weekly report, May 6

This week's safety report, compiled by the Fermilab ESH&Q Section, contains one incident.

An employee slipped and fell, injuring his hand and knee. The case is recordable

Find the full report here.

In the News

Basic science finds corporate refuge

From Nature, April 29, 2014

​Microsoft makes Windows, Word and the Xbox. But it also employs scientists who make sensors to stick on the hides of elephants and rhinoceroses.

The sensors enable aerial drones to track endangered animals and record changes in their movements that might signify threats, says Lucas Joppa, a conservation biologist at Microsoft's research centre in Cambridge, UK. Joppa uses these massive, complex data sets to inform possible conservation solutions, such as systems that warn responders about poaching. He publishes his research freely. "I get to do world-class science, but I also get to interact with one of the world's most successful businesses," he says.

The ranks of scientists like Joppa are growing, according to economists and observers of trends in science and technology. They suggest that a newer generation of technology-oriented companies — many sitting on mountains of cash after years of growth and market success — have enough money to take a chance on the curiosity-driven research of basic science.

Read more

Announcements

Today's New Announcements

Thursday night golf at Arrowhead Golf Course

Pre-retirement planning Lunch and Learn - today

Yoga registration due May 8

Central web service town hall meeting - May 8

Yoga Open House class - May 8

Take the train commuting survey by May 9

English country dancing with live music on May 18

Joint Speaker Series: Science and Serendipity - May 21

Change in tax practice may affect some visitors

Be a winner! Take the Take Five Challenge spring 2014

A Smart Cuisine purchase earns you 10 bonus points