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Tuesday, Mar. 4
2:30 p.m.
Special Joint Experimental-Theoretical Physics Seminar - One West (NOTE DATE & TIME)
Speaker: J. Yoo, Fermilab
Title: The First CDMS 5-Tower Results
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
THERE WILL BE NO ACCELERATOR PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR TODAY
Wednesday, March 5
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Fermilab Colloquium - One West
Speaker: A. Leggett, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Title: Bell's Theorem, Entanglement, Quantum Teleportation and All That
Click here for NALCAL,
a weekly calendar with links to additional information. |
Tuesday, March 4
- Golden broccoli & cheese
- Southern style fish sandwich
- Coconut crusted tilapia
- Spaghetti w/meatballs
- La grande sandwich
- Assorted pizza slices
- Chicken fajitas
Wilson Hall Cafe Menu |
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Wednesday, March 5
Lunch
- Pork satay w/peanut sauce
- Sautéed asian vegetable
- Baked lime custard
Thursday, March 6
Dinner
- Mushroom duxelle
- Sautéed flounder w/shrimp
- Lacey potato pancakes w/chives
- Steamed green beans
- Marzipan soufflé w/bittersweet chocolate sauce
Chez Leon Menu
Call x4598 to make your reservation. |
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CDF creates online
virtual tour of detector
A new Web site provides a virtual tour of the CDF detector.
CDF collaborators want you to share their world with you from the comfort of your home or desk.
A new Web site
launched last week takes particle-minded non scientists through a virtual tour of the detector, into the control room and into the lives of CDF physicists.
"Our purpose is to explain how a particle detector works in more detail than you tend to see on similar sites, and to help non scientists get a sense of what goes on within a particle physics collaboration," said Jenny Lee, a CDF intern who designed the site.
The Web site has interactive diagrams, a glossary of terms commonly used to describe detectors and experiment data and video interviews with CDF physicists. The interviews describe a typical day of work on an international collaboration, how discoveries occur and why physicists often shy away from everyday terminology in favor of more specific scientific definitions.
"Very few people can actually come to the building. You have to have access. More people can view it online," Lee said. "We figured more people could learn about it what goes on here this way."
--Tona Kunz
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In Memoriam: Peter Schlein
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| Peter Schlein |
We are sad to announce that Peter Schlein, professor at UCLA and long-time friend and colleague, died Feb. 26 at the age of 75. Schlein participated in Fermilab experiments E110A and E260, although most of his research took place at CERN and DESY, on the ISR, SppS collider, HERA, and most recently on TOTEM and CMS at the LHC. He was an expert on hadronic diffraction and well-known for the "Ingelman-Schlein" model of the pomeron, which was described in a top-cited paper (more than 630 citations). He also specialized in b-physics and worked as spokesperson for a 1991 proposal (P845) to study b-physics at the Tevatron, a precursor to BTeV. He was the initiator of the LHCb experiment at the LHC. He demonstrated that near-beam silicon tracking would allow efficient b-triggers at the CERN SppS. Schlein died of sudden cardiac arrest in Paris on his way to the U.S.; he was scheduled to give a colloquium at Fermilab on his adventures reconstructing and recording his father's musical compositions. Our sympathies are with his wife, Lisa, son, Oren, and daughter, Ilana. A memorial service will be held in New York on Sunday, March 9. A Web site contains more information.
--Mike Albrow
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New stamp honors UI professor, inventor Bardeen
From The News-Gazette,
March 3, 2008
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| John Bardeen, famous physicist and father of Fermilab physicist Bill Bardeen, will be pictured on a U.S. postage stamp as part of an American Scientists series in the U.S. Postal Service's commemorative stamp program. Image courtesy of USPS |
John Bardeen never ran for six touchdowns against Michigan.
Then again, Red Grange never won two Nobel Prizes nor invented anything like the transistor, the linchpin of the modern electronic age.
Which is why the late UI physics professor will join the Illini football legend Thursday as the latest person with local connections to end up on a commemorative stamp from the U.S. Postal Service. Grange was honored in 2003.
"It's the first time any of us have been involved in this type of event," Urbana Postmaster Kathleen Burr said. "It's very exciting to be able to recognize someone who has contributed so much, to the world actually, and it happened right here in our community."
That makes the first day the Bardeen stamp will go on sale an occasion for local postal officials, stamp aficionados and UI officials alike.
"It's not every day that the United States Postal Service issues a stamp in honor of somebody in your community," said Louise Toft of the Champaign-Urbana Stamp Club.
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| Fermilab physicist Bill Bardeen will accept the first commemorative stamp honoring his father. John Bardeen's grandchildren will be present at the Madison Square Garden ceremony. |
The stamp will be officially issued at the Postage Stamp Mega-Event, a "World Series of Philately" (that is, stamp collecting) starting Thursday in New York's Madison Square Garden, sponsored by the Postal Service, the American Stamp Dealers Association and the America Philatelic Society.
But its "first day of sale" will be marked at 12:15 p.m. Thursday in Room 144 of Loomis Lab, at the corner of Green Street and Goodwin Avenue, where the UI Physics Department is housed.
Local and UI officials will attend the ceremony, which is sponsored by the stamp club, the Urbana Post Office and the physics department, along with members of Mr. Bardeen's family. Burr is to cancel the first commemorative stamp and present it to Mr. Bardeen's son William, a noted physicist in his own right.
The stamp club has commissioned a special commemorative envelope, done by local artist Jason Pankoke, and the Urbana Post Office will cancel Bardeen stamps on the envelopes with a special first-day ink cancellation stamp.
Read more
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Next steps
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| Pier Oddone |
We have now operated for one month under the ongoing furlough. I continue to press for every avenue of relief that could allow us to stop the furlough later in the fiscal year, my top priority if we receive additional funding. In the meantime, I want to express my admiration and gratitude for your dedication to Fermilab under these very trying circumstances. Your efforts have resulted in a month of good operations for the accelerators and detectors, a safe month, continued production of results and continued development of plans for the future. We have had very constructive interactions regarding the laboratory's future with the DOE Office of High Energy Physics, with the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel, P5, and with our own FRA Board of Directors.
Over the last two months, we have faced a heavy and much more difficult task: the development of a plan for the layoffs that Fermilab must make to fit into our reduced budget going into the future. I created a task force of senior personnel from divisions and sections to go through every function at the laboratory and make recommendations to me on how we should reduce the workforce while minimizing damage to our overall program. The task force carried out this difficult task by analyzing the present and future needs of the laboratory. They considered only functions, without discussing names. The task force met for many hours almost every day during January. In early February, they made recommendations to me for reductions in various functions carried out by divisions and sections. I then met personally with every division and section head to understand the full impact of these job cuts and to take responsibility for the consequences to our operations for the nearly 200-FTE reduction proposed by the task force. We are now moving to the next step, with each division and section working with our Workforce Development and Resources Section on the actual reductions in force, the people who will be laid off, within each division. Layoffs will affect every area of the laboratory, scientific and support staff alike. We can only proceed to implement our plan after receiving approval by DOE.
The present estimated timeline would have us giving notices to employees sometime in late April or May. Our established policy is to give two weeks notice to the employees who will lose their jobs. The Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining (WARN) Act would override our policy and require a 60-day notice but only for a layoff of more than 250 employees. We will stay well below that number.
For the next few months, we will be going through a very difficult period. It will be most difficult, of course, for our colleagues who learn they are being laid off. It will also be difficult for those who remain here, as our colleagues and friends leave Fermilab, an institution to which they have dedicated themselves. We are committed as an institution to help our colleagues as much as possible, especially to help those who seek employment elsewhere. We have already taken steps to set up a center staffed with experts in employment matters to serve everyone desiring help to seek new employment. Several firms have expressed interest in hiring our people, and we will be seeking more companies and institutions to help obtain new positions for our colleagues. Meanwhile, as additional information about the layoffs becomes available, we will incorporate it into the Q and A's that you will find on the dedicated Web site.
There is no way to sugar coat it: These are difficult days. As director, I will spare no effort to lead Fermilab through this crisis to a vital future.
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2008 CTEQ Summer School August 8-16 in Hungary
The 2008 CTEQ-MCnet Summer School on QCD Phenomenology and Monte Carlo Event Generators will convene August 8-16 in Debrecen, Hungary. The School will include broad lectures on QCD theory, phenomenology and analysis as well as a practical approach to event generator physics and techniques with hands-on sessions using the techniques in real analyses.
The CTEQ schools are noted for choosing topics that strike a balance between the underlying physics and practical applications in current and near-future experiments. The unique CTEQ School daily schedule is an excellent opportunity for young high energy physicists to meet experts in the field and immerse themselves in the fundamentals of QCD. The application deadline is April 30, 2008. Enrollment will be limited to 80 participants. Application procedures and additional information are available here.
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Have a safe day!
Apple Leopard presentation March 4
A presentation from Apple titled "Leopard for the Scientist" will be held on March 4, from 9 a.m.- noon in Wilson Hall One West. Breakfast pastries will be available at 8 a.m. The presentation will include the latest UNIX features and demonstrations in Leopard, Leopard tools for writing and optimizing code, Intel compiler and innovative solutions for scientists from Apple, developers and scientists. Apple Open Source's Ernie Prabhakar, Intel's Steve Lionel, and Ron Ustach and Tim White from the Apple Government Team will present. More information
U of C Tuition Remission program deadline March 10
The deadline for applying for the tuition remission program at The
University of Chicago for the Spring 2008 quarter is March 10.
See the Web site for more information or contact Karen Karlix, x4365 with questions.
Scottish Country dance Tuesday
Scottish Country Dancing will meet Tuesday, March 4, at Kuhn Barn on the Fermilab site. Instruction begins at 7:30 p.m. and newcomers are always welcome. Most dances are fully taught and walked through, and you do not need to come with a partner. For more information, call (630) 840-8194 or (630) 584-0825 or folkdance@fnal.gov.
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Mostly cloudy 31°/20°
