Duane Plant, Fermilab's "MacGyver" retires today

Duane Plant uses a fishing pole with an attached thermometer to test water temperature at the Main Injector Pond.

Duane Plant, a member of the Fermilab community for 34 years, will retire today. Described as an "inventive, creative scientist" by his co-workers, Plant is known for his work with tiny cameras and his ability to foresee problems before they occur. Plant's resourceful skills recently earned him the title of "MacGyver" in an April symmetry magazine article.

Prior to joining Fermilab, Plant worked for the U.S. Defense Department on electronic countermeasures such as radar disruption. He first visited the site with a friend in 1973 and was extremely impressed by the accelerator's main control room. He applied for a position in the Accelerator Division and began work in June of that year.

While at Fermilab, Plant has worked as operator (Levels 1 and 2), crew chief, and machine specialist. He served a brief stint with Superconducting Super Collider as collider operations engineering physicist from '91-'95, and from '95-'97 he assisted with the assembly of the main injector. Since then, Plant has worked under Paul Czarapata in the Accelerator Division as a senior operations specialist. "I'm basically a machine trouble-shooter," he said.

Plant has always been fascinated by the technology at Fermilab and cites the diversity of work as his favorite part of the job. "There's always something interesting to work on," he said.

Aside from his work, Plant will also miss the camaraderie between co-workers. "They're a great group," he said. He plans to spend his retirement fishing and camping.

-- J. Bryan Lowder

From Science Magazine,
June 29, 2007:

PARTICLE PHYSICS: A Spare Magnet, a Borrowed Laser, and One Quick Shot at Glory

Using equipment they have on hand, a small band of physicists hopes to confirm the existence of a new particle--by shining a laser through a wall

BATAVIA, ILLINOIS--In particle physics, the quintessential big science, $30,000 usually doesn't buy you much. For example, the mammoth Large Hadron Collider (LHC) under construction at the European particle physics laboratory, CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland, costs a staggering $3.8 billion, and each of the atom smasher's 1232 main steering magnets costs 1 million Swiss francs ($800,000). But for less than 0.001% of the cost of the LHC, a tiny team here at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) hopes to pull off an experiment that could clinch a discovery as revolutionary as any the LHC might make.

Read More

From Kane County Chronicle
June 29, 2007:

Fermilab ash trees infested

BATAVIA - The emerald ash borer has hit Fermilab.

Illinois Department of Agriculture officials last week found three ash trees infested with the emerald ash borer. The trees are on Fermilab's property along Kirk Road, just south of Wilson Street.

U.S. Department of Agriculture officials will meet with Fermilab leaders today to talk about how to deal with an emerald ash borer infestation.

Read More