Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015
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New line dancing class

Lunch and Learn: Why do millions of people see a chiropractor? - today

Call for proposals: URA Visiting Scholars Program - deadline is Aug. 31

Fermilab employee art show - submission deadline Sept. 1

Fermilab golf outing - Sept. 11

September AEM meeting date change to Sept. 14

Python Programming Basics is scheduled for Oct. 14-16

Python Programming Advanced - Dec. 9-11

Fermilab Prairie Plant Survey

Pine Street road closing

Fermi Singers invite all visiting students and staff

Walk 2 Run on Thursdays

Outdoor soccer

English country dancing at Kuhn Barn

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One minute with Rob Reilly, mechanical design engineer

Since the time he was in grade school, Rob Reilly, AD, has been working with machines, including his first car, a 1950 Jaguar. Photo: Reidar Hahn

How long have you worked at Fermilab?
Thirty-five years. My first job was in the switchyard designing the left-bend cryogenic system and then later on the right-bend cryogenic system, which were used in during the fixed-target program. Now both of those are decommissioned. It's kind of funny to be here long enough to see something that you built be retired.

What might you do in a typical workday?
We take care of supplying beam to experiments and all of the accelerator needs. Right now we're in a 13-week-shutdown where we're changing some of the beamline layout. Every day I'm down in the tunnels taking out old parts and installing new ones.

When did you begin doing this type of work?
It started with fixing up my little bicycle when I was in grade school. And then I moved on to restoring cars. I still have my first car from high school, a 1950 Jaguar. I like taking things that have been run down by other people and returning them back to the way they were when they were new.

What's the weirdest project you've worked on?
It was one of the magnetic shielding jobs in the NuMI extraction line. The NuMI extraction was affecting the Recycler Ring, so we had to put quarter-inch plates around the magnets, which were already installed. We had to make all these little steel plates and fit them in around these magnets. There were over a thousand drawings of little plates, and every one was different. It took a year to figure out how to do it.

What's the most exciting part of your job?
Fermilab is always about something new, something different. That's the most exciting thing: building something that nobody else in the world has ever built and, very often, nobody else knows how to build. Once in a while when we start, we don't even know how. The scientists say, "We need something that does this, but we don't know exactly how it should be." We have to figure it out as we go.

What's something people might not know about you?
I've been playing guitar since 1970. My favorite type of music to perform is Christian contemporary, and I'm a member of my church band. I have a collection of 15 guitars: My favorite is my 1971 Gibson Les Paul coffee sunburst. Also, I've been married for 38 years, and I have two kids and five grandkids.

Ali Sundermier

Photo of the Day

Meet the mallards

What an adorable couple. Photo: Bridget Scerini, TD
In the News

At Plainfield forum, industry experts talk transportation innovation

From Northwest Herald, Aug. 21, 2015

PLAINFIELD — Several experts in industries from ridesharing to particle physics offered their ideas to improve transportation at a public forum Thursday hosted by U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren, R-Plano, at Plainfield Village Hall.

About 40 people attended the Community Leadership Forum. Panelists included Hultgren; General Motors Executive Director Harry Lightsey; Fermilab Chief Operating Officer Timothy Meyer; Mark Blankenship and Kevin Price, both with the Illinois Department of Transportation; CSX Transportation Regional Vice President Thomas Livingston; and UBER Chicago General Manager Chris Taylor.

Read more

From the Chief Operating Officer

Fare thee well, Fermilab Today

Tim Meyer

Evolution happens. It just does. In nature, it's about survival, and in the human world, it's about progressing to stay relevant and impactful. How Fermilab talks and what we talk about is about to evolve.

So, word on the street is that Fermilab Today has been measured and found wanting, with a sentence of capital punishment after 12 years as the most successful laboratory-based daily newsletter of all time. Is this rumor true? Are we killing the one thing that is reliable around here?!

No. It is evolving! And please turn your memories back to 2003 when Fermilab Today was first introduced; the uproar was heard around the globe and colleagues at CERN still remember the picketing and demonstrations in front of Wilson Hall and along the Fox River about the "mandatory" daily email.

So, here are just the facts.

Fermilab Today currently reaches about 5,500 employees, users, particle physicists, reporters and members of the public — indiscriminately, unselectively and inexorably. (Yes, this has been part of its recipe for success.) But when we checked in with readers, we found that most people read only about 15 percent of the newsletter, based on their tastes and preferences. To ensure that all of these different types of subscribers receive the most accurate, timely and pertinent information about the lab, Fermilab Today will evolve into a suite of news channels beginning this fall.

Fermilab employees, users and contractors will access all the news you need to know to work here on an enhanced Fermilab at Work Web page. In addition to reading the latest column from Nigel, browsing the announcements, checking the day's calendar and sharing the newest accelerator milestone on Facebook, you'll be able to submit your own information and contributions. Once approved, your announcement will appear on Fermilab at Work immediately.

If you prefer getting news in your inbox, we've got you covered. Employees will automatically receive a weekly e-news digest that includes the types of employee-focused content you've grown to know and love in Fermilab Today. And if you truly miss it, you will still be able to opt in to a daily digest that includes the day's calendar and all announcements published the previous day. Users, contractors, retirees and alumni will be able to opt in to the weekly or daily digests.

Loyal Fermilab fans and followers interested in our science, technology, outreach and public event information will be able to subscribe to a monthly e-newsletter, visit our home page or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.

More details about these changes will be communicated to all Fermilab Today subscribers in the next month, so stay tuned.

How else will communication be evolving at the lab? Computing, the Office of Communication and the Office of Integrated Planning and Project Management are partnering on a digital-signage pilot project. Large screens installed at several locations around the lab will display audience-centric content. For instance, a large display in the atrium will include photos, videos and other information of interest to the public visiting Fermilab. Screens elsewhere, such as at Feynman Computing Center, ESH&Q and FESS, will focus on information that's important for employees and users that frequent those areas. If successful, the technology would become available labwide. We won't replace all the paper flyers stapled near the elevators, but we will take a step forward into having a digital platform available for sharing news and information with people on site.

Last but not least on the communication front, the contests to suggest Fermilab's new tagline and address "Why do YOU work at Fermilab?" were a huge success. We received more than 400 submissions, and we thank you for your thoughtful and valuable input! The lucky winner of the random drawing for $500 is Mark Graczyk in Procurement. We are currently evaluating all of your feedback, and a new Fermilab tagline will be announced in September.

As a postscript, let me note that communication has been evolving within my own household. Norah, age 20 months and 2 weeks, used her first four syllable word ("cow-wee-fwah-wer") this past weekend to generously and graciously identify my blackened and burned effort to cook a certain vegetable on our gas grill. I am so proud!