Fermilab Today Wednesday, February 6, 2008
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Furlough Information

New furlough information, including an up-to-date Q&A section, appears on the furlough Web pages daily.

Calendar

Wednesday, Feb. 6
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m. - CANCELLED
Fermilab Colloquium - CANCELLED
Speaker: B. Uzzi, Northwestern University
Title: Complexity and Human Creativity: Scientists and Artists

Thursday, Feb. 7
1 p.m.
Physics and Detector Seminar - West Wing, WH-10NW
Speaker: T. Rizzo, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Title: SUSY at the ILC with the SiD Detector
2:30 p.m.
Theoretical Physics Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: T. Becher, Fermilab
Title: Precision Determination of αs from Thrust Distributions at LEP
3 p.m.
Computing Division Seminar - FCC1
Speaker: N. Desai, Argonne National Laboratory
Title: Bcfg2: Overview
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Accelerator Physics and Technology Seminar - One West
Speaker: E. Barzi, Fermilab
Title: Superconducting Strand and Cable R&D at FNAL

Click here for NALCAL,
a weekly calendar with links to additional information.

Weather

Weather

Heavy snow 31°/14°

Extended Forecast
Weather at Fermilab

Current Security Status

Secon Level 3

Wilson Hall Cafe
Wednesday, Feb. 6
- Creamy mushroom chicken soup
- Cajun chicken ranch
- Chicken wellington
- Parmesan baked pork chops
- Smoked turkey panini pesto mayo
- Assorted slice pizza
- Chicken alfredo fettucine

Wilson Hall Cafe Menu

Chez Leon

Wednesday, Feb. 6
Lunch
- Northern Italian lasagna
- Caesar salad
- Cassata

Thursday, Feb. 7
Dinner
- Closed

Chez Leon Menu
Call x4598 to make your reservation.

Archives

Fermilab Today
Result of the Week
Safety Tip of the Week
ILC NewsLine

Info

Fermilab Today
is online at:
www.fnal.gov/today/

Send comments and suggestions to:
today@fnal.gov

Feature

Fermilab accepts Federal Electronics Challenge

Fermilab adopts greener electronic practices as part of the Federal Electronics Challenge.

At Fermilab, old electronic equipment never dies, it just gets recycled.

That saves the laboratory money, and it could mean a federal pat on the back.

As part of the government-sponsored Federal Electronics Challenge, a laboratory ad hoc committee has organized electronic recycling activities and energy efficient practices to help Fermilab qualify for an award.

"We were already doing just about everything required for the award," said CD's Amy Pavnica who chairs the committee. "But now we are making it a formal program."

The FEC partnership program encourages federal agencies and facilities to purchase greener electronics, reduce impacts of electronic products during use and manage obsolete electronics in an environmentally safe way. The committee chose to focus on several avenues of recycling, including the final phase of the electronic life cycle and running energy-efficient machines. Central Services & Infrastructure Department Head Jack Schmidt is working to set up an online store for purchasing energy-efficient computers. "We want to make it easier to buy EPEAT computers," said Schmidt, referring to an environmental designation for desktops and laptops similar to Energy Star rankings for other appliances.

Fermilab also will pursue several other FEC activities, such as implementing a cell phone recycling program administered through the Telecommunications Department and partnering with Argonne to recycle obsolete electronics.

Pavnica and Schmidt said that the three FEC rating tiers will challenge the laboratory to continue its recycling momentum. "It's an opportunity to show the DOE our commitment to recycling, energy efficiency and to save money," said Schmidt, adding that buying efficient electronics will save more and more money over the long term.

For more information on the FEC and awards, visit the challenge site.

-- Haley Bridger

Budget News Update

Bush asks for more physics - again

From nature.com news, Feb. 5, 2008

President seeks competitive edge with final budget request.

In his final year as president, George W. Bush has put forward a budget wish-list that looks to restore his priorities in science and research, with solid increases for some physical sciences and pretty much no new money for the biomedical sector. Whether Congress will go along with this remains to be seen.

In terms of research and development, the budget's most pronounced feature is a 15% (US$1.6 billion) increase in physical-sciences spending year on year. In December 2007, last-minute negotiations in Congress derailed the second year of Bush's 'American Competitiveness Initiative', removing money from many physical-science programmes. This new request is meant to put the initiative's aim of a doubling of physical-sciences budgets over 10 years as part of the initiative back on track, asking for $12.2 billion spread across the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy's Office of Science, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. At the same time Bush would freeze funding for the National Institutes of Health at $29.3 billion.

Read more


Fermilab rescue too late

From Chicago Tribune, Feb. 6, 2008

Good budgetary news from Washington this week won't prevent layoffs of about 200 employees at Fermilab, the lab's director on Tuesday told employees who will soon be notified as to who will lose jobs.

President Bush's proposed budget for fiscal 2009 would restore all cuts to Fermilab that were made in December, when Congress sliced about $52 million from the Batavia-based lab's fiscal 2008 expected budget. But even if Congress approves the new budget, it wouldn't help Fermilab operations until fall at the earliest and probably not until a year from now, said Pier Oddone, Fermilab's director.

The federal Department of Energy proposes to raise Fermilab's budget from about $321 million in fiscal 2008 to $379 million in 2009.

Read more

See all related news stories here

From the Accelerator Division

Up and running

Today's column is written by Roger Dixon, head of the Accelerator Division.

Roger Dixon

The holidays have come and gone since I wrote my last column. Today, the Tevatron is running very well. But it didn't get to this state easily. We were in startup from late October until the end of December, which added a lot of stress to our holiday season.

Startups always challenge operations crews and experts alike. When things work out well, it comes as a surprise because the difficulty of the process and many possibilities for disaster.

During this startup, we fixed vacuum problems in the Linac, eliminated helix problems in the Tevatron, commissioned a set of new corrector magnets in the Booster and much more. Just before the holidays, as we were about to move past all of these issues, we found that we had to replace a Tevatron dipole magnet. Several of the people needed to repair and re-commission the Tevatron already had made their holiday vacation plans, so phone calls were made and plans were changed. Crews worked around the clock to replace the failed magnet, breaking only for Christmas Day and night. On New Year's Day, one day ahead of schedule, the operations crews, along with some machine experts, got the accelerator complex up and running.

The efforts have paid off. In January, the Tevatron achieved the second largest number of collisions in a one-month period, the antiproton stacking rate has repeatedly reached new record levels and we are optimistic that we can improve the performance of the entire accelerator complex even further.

The credit for making the Tevatron work clearly goes to our dedicated AD staff, not Santa. I hope he and his elves will help a little more during the next startup.

Safety Update

ES&H weekly report, Feb. 5

This week's safety report, compiled by the Fermilab ES&H section, includes two incidents that involved slipping on ice, one that resulted in a recordable injury. The laboratory now has five recordable cases for the fiscal year. The full report is here.

Safety report archive


Announcements

Have a safe day!

Register for S/CI training
Technical personnel and managers can sign up for suspect/counterfeit items identification training, scheduled to take place Feb. 11-14 at Fermilab. This training is required for construction supervisors and task managers. Three courses are offered: course 1, "Suspect/Counterfeit Items Identification", a two-hour, hands-on experience; and course 2, "Suspect/Counterfeit Items DOE Program", a 1.5-hour overview of DOE's S/CI program; and course 3 "Suspect/Counterfeit Items Train the Trainer", a three-hour, Q&A session intended for Fermilab individuals with responsibility to provide S/CI training for personnel within their division or section. Courses must be taken in order. Register at the ES&H Web site or contact Joel Kofron, x8444

Employee Black Hawk tickets
Fermilab employees can take advantage of discounted Black Hawk ticket for home games at the United Center Feb. 20, March 5 and March 9. Employees can save up to $22.50 on tickets. Order forms can be found in the Recreation Office, WH15W or on the Recreation home page.

ESL class in Users Center
A beginning English as a Second Language course will meet from 10-11:30 a.m. every Wednesday from Jan. 30-May 14 in the Users' Center. The class will cover topics including daily conversation, shopping, transportation, travel, food, grocery, restaurant ordering and doctor visits. E-mail or call Kim Habig, x4240, for more information. New students may join anytime.

Financial counseling available
Need financial advice? For financial counseling or advice, employees may call on the resources of the Employee Assistance Program. Call the EAP 24/7 at 1-800-843-1327, and tell them you're from Fermilab. Or get directly in touch with employee assistance counselor Brian Malinowski at 1-847-625-3532 or bmalinowski@vmceap.com. Access furlough information here.

Intermediate Word course Feb. 21
Learn how to create customized lists, tables, charts, graphics and personalized Word 2003 efficiency tools at an Intermediate Word 2003 course on Feb. 21. Learn more and enroll

Additional Activities

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