Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014
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Wednesday, Sept. 17

3 p.m.
LHC Physics Center Topic of the Week Seminar - WH11NE
Speaker: Frank Hartmann, Karlsruhe
Title: Student Lecture about Silicon Sensor Technology and Sensor Testing

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

4 p.m.
Fermilab Colloquium - One West
Speaker: Hantao Ji, Princeton University
Title: Laboratory Study of Angular Momentum Transport in Astrophysics Accretion Disks

Thursday, Sept. 18

11 a.m.
Intensity Frontier Seminar Series - WH8XO
Speaker: Tingjun Yan, Fermilab
Title: Coherent Charged-Pion Production in ArgoNeuT

2:30 p.m.
Theoretical Physics Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: Ryosuke Sato, KEK
Title: PeV Neutrinos from Right-Handed Neutrino Dark Matter

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

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70°/48°

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Wilson Hall Cafe

Wednesday, Sept. 17

- Breakfast: breakfast strata
- Breakfast: ham, egg and cheese English muffin
- Smoky Mountain chicken breast sandwich
- Pork piccata with lemon sauce
- Shepherd's pie
- Ham and pear panino
- Grilled or crispy chicken Caesar salad
- Sausage, potato and kale soup
- Texas-style chili
- Assorted calzones

Wilson Hall Cafe menu

Chez Leon

Wednesday, Sept. 17
Lunch
- Barbecue back ribs
- Creamy coleslaw
- Cocoa cappuccino mousse with cookies

Friday, Sept. 19
Dinner
Closed

Chez Leon menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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Feature

3-D printing gives edge to Fermilab experiment

James Wetzel, left, and Burak Bilki, both of the University of Iowa, use 3-D printing technology to manufacture small, temporary parts for the T-1041 CMS forward calorimetry experiment. Photo courtesy of Burak Bilki and James Wetzel

In a public outreach effort for CMS, Fermilab user James Wetzel bought a 3-D printer to build a miniature, build-it-yourself model CMS detector. Only one month later, Wetzel is repurposing his new toy to help build prototypes for CMS upgrade R&D projects based at the University of Iowa.

"The brand is Afinia, and the cost is $1,299," Wetzel said.

Wetzel's affordable 3-D printer has churned out numerous small, temporary support parts for Fermilab's T-1041 CMS forward calorimetry R&D experiments, particularly for one component of the experiment concerning quartz-plate calorimetry. Wetzel and collaborators hope to protect against radiation damage in the CMS detector by reconstructing scintillator tiles using radiation-hard quartz.

Wetzel works alongside University of Iowa's Burak Bilki and Yasar Onel, co-spokespersons for the CMS forward calorimetry R&D experiments, and is a member of one of six groups working on the experiment. Right now, collaborators are in the prototype design and test phases, and the printer is a huge asset.

"In general, for this kind of experiment, where it's mostly prototype development, we need support structures and small parts," Bilki said. "Before, we had to purchase them or go through a complete engineering-production-assembly chain. Now, we have an in-house practical production facility."

Wetzel adds that, in the past, prototypes were fixed with epoxy or glue or machined, and pieces that needed adjustment were simply stuck, unamendable. Now, instead of shoving bits of oddly shaped plastic into excess space or taping a frame haphazardly, Wetzel can print the exact piece needed.

"It saves a huge amount of time and energy," Wetzel said. "Before we started using the printer, people were spending five days straight making little structures that, with the 3-D printer, take me a few hours to design, print and test a prototype in the beam."

The process is fairly easy. Once the sketch is designed on the computer, the tangible piece is literally a click away. A printed piece can take anywhere from two minutes to two hours, depending on its size and detail.

"It seems like this is just a fad, but in a situation like this, it's a huge advantage," Wetzel said.

Hanae Armitage

Milestone

Bliss Creek and Fox Valley golf league champions

Congratulations to the Bliss Creek Tuesday League first-place team. From left: Hoyett McKenzie (Fermilab contractor), John Najdzion (PPD), Gordon Bagby (FS), Todd Maberry (Fermilab contractor). Photo: Elliott McCrory, AD
Congratulations to the Fox Valley Wednesday League first-place team. From left: Ted Thorson (FESS), Kevin True (Office of the CIO), Brian Kramper (Fermilab retiree), Lori Limberg (ESH&Q). Photo: Elliott McCrory, AD
Bliss Creek Tuesday League distributed individual trophies to two golfers. From left: Todd Maberry (Fermilab contractor) was recognized for most points for the season and Jerry Leibfritz (AD) for lowest average of the season. Photo: Elliott McCrory, AD
Fox Valley Wednesday League distributed individual trophies to two golfers. From left: Darrel Sigmon (Fermilab retiree) was recognized for low average of the season and Ted Thorson (FESS) for most points for the season. Photo: Elliott McCrory, AD

Last week the Bliss Creek and Fox Valley golf leagues handed out trophies for the recently closed season. Congratulations to the winning teams and this season's outstanding athletes.

The Fermilab Golf League consists of 83 members that play in at least one of the two leagues. League membership is open to all Fermilab employees, retirees, contractors and immediate family members of Fermilab employees.

In the News

Energy Secretary Moniz showcases National Laboratories on the Hill

From Energy.gov, Sept. 16, 2014

Washington, D.C. — Today, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz joined Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Senator Jim Risch (R-ID) for National Lab Day on the Hill. The event highlighted several notable research projects from across the National Laboratory system. Senators Durbin and Risch also formally launched the Senate National Laboratory Caucus, which aims to increase awareness of the reach of the national labs as leaders in developing new breakthrough technologies and discoveries to address some of our nation's most pressing challenges.

Read more

From the Particle Physics Division

Thank you

Mike Lindgren

Mike Lindgren, head of the Particle Physics Division, wrote this column.

This will be my final column in Fermilab Today for the Particle Physics Division. On Oct. 1, Patty McBride will become the next PPD head, and Gina Rameika will lead the new Neutrino Division. I will move to serving full-time as chief project officer for the laboratory. The past couple of months have been quite busy with preparations for the new organization, which will improve the already excellent alignment of the lab with the direction laid out by P5.

I'm fortunate to have been given the opportunity to serve as a division head for the past five and a half years. Working for Associate Laboratory Director Greg Bock was a tremendous pleasure, full of late-night and early-morning planning sessions on how to keep the Tevatron experiments going strong while ramping up for CMS, finishing MINERvA and DECam while getting NOvA back online after the budget was zeroed out in 2008, and then taking our liquid-argon R&D to the next level with LBNE and MicroBooNE. We were fortunate to be working with groups of immensely talented people, both Fermilab employees and university colleagues, who contribute so much to the high-energy physics program by coming here and choosing Fermilab for their research home — in spite of never having enough office space for everyone.

I would like to thank everyone in the PPD who made the job so fun and rewarding. The people in the division and department offices are unsung heroes who work very hard to make sure that we spend wisely, don't break the myriad rules under which a national lab functions, and generally make meetings, conferences and travel go smoothly. In the research departments, our postdocs and scientists amazed me daily with their dedication to the science we do at the colliders, at the neutrino experiments, and in searching for dark energy and dark matter. The tremendous effort made by PPD scientists and hundreds of others to search for the Higgs at CDF, DZero and CMS, culminating in its discovery at the LHC, was in my view an inspiration to the entire world, in addition to being a fantastic advance for science.

None of that science is possible without the engineering and technical expertise of the dedicated and creative people in the Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Detector Development and Operations departments. There were a lot of highlights, too many to cover, but watching NOvA's block pivoter driving 200-ton blocks down the experiment's far-detector hall in Minnesota and setting them in place was a real high point, as was seeing the first images from DECam, which produced beautiful images as soon as it was cooled down and turned on. That level of performance does not happen without outstanding engineering and construction — which I came to appreciate as the norm from our people.

The construction barriers around the west remote operations center came down this week, and our neutrino and muon experiments now have a state-of-the-art control room from which to operate for the next decade or more. But it is fair to say that the division, the lab and the field have pivoted from a decade focused on operations to a decade that adds the challenge of major project planning, design and construction. Everyone in PPD has been a part of that pivot, and many have been leaders in defining and initiating it. I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to both lead and serve the people in the Particle Physics Division.

Photos of the Day

High-rise silhouette

Wilson Hall, near and far, stands against the colorful evening sky. Photos: Kuldeep Kaur
Safety Update

ESH&Q weekly report, Sept. 16

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

An employee tripped over a raised area of concrete, falling and injuring her hand, knee and chin. She received sutures.

An employee was stung by a bee. He received first-aid treatment.

See the full report.

Announcements

Mike Super at Fermilab - Sept. 27

Access 2010: Intermediate - Oct. 2

Interpersonal Communications Skills - Oct. 21

Excel 2010: Intermediate - Oct. 29

Writing for Results: Email and More (morning only) - Oct. 30

Managing Conflict course (morning only) - Nov. 5

Access 2010: Advanced - Nov. 12

Excel 2010: Advanced - Dec. 3

Added room locations in the FermiMail Calendar

Newly released eBook available at the Fermilab Library

NALWO Playgroup meets Wednesdays at Users Center

Abri Credit Union financial advisor

Help improve travel in Fox Valley region and to Fermilab

Indoor soccer