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Friday, May 2
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Joint Experimental-Theoretical Physics Seminar - One West
Speaker: M. Boezio, INFN Trieste
Title: The Science of the PAMELA Space Mission
8 p.m.
Fermilab International Film Society - Auditorium
Tickets: Adults $5
Title: Sketches of Frank Gehry
Saturday, May 3
8 p.m.
Fermilab Arts Series - Auditorium
Tickets: $25/$13
Reduced Shakespeare Company: All the Great Books (abridged)
Monday, May 5
2:30 p.m.
Particle Astrophysics Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: D. Paneque, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Title: The GLAST Satellite and Its Impact on the Understanding
of High-Energy Phenomena in the Universe
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
All Experimenters' Meeting - Curia II
Special Topics: Recent Antiproton Source Operations;
Big Things Happening in MTest;
CMS Installation and Commissioning
Click here for NALCAL,
a weekly calendar with links to additional information. |
Friday, May 2
- Chunky vegetable soup w/orzo
- Buffalo chicken wings
- Cajun breaded catfish teriyaki
- Pork stir-fry
- Honey mustard ham & Swiss panini
- Carved turkey
Wilson Hall Cafe Menu |
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Wednesday, May 7
Lunch
- Crepes w/Black Forest ham & Gruyere
- Greek salad
- Cold lemon soufflé
Thursday, May 8
Dinner
- Closed
Chez Leon Menu
Call x4598 to make your reservation. |
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Layoff information
Layoffs at Fermilab will soon begin. The exact date depends on final DOE approval of the restructuring plan and the requirement for Congressional notification. As soon as DOE provides the date, Fermilab Today will announce it.
It is not easy to say goodbye to colleagues and friends of many years. Fermilab managers will carry out the layoffs with respect for employees and recognition of the personal impact of being laid off.
The majority of layoff notifications will happen over a three-day period.
- Day One: Computing Division, Technical Division, Directorate and Workforce Development and Resources Section
- Day Two: Particle Physics Division, ES&H Section and the Accelerator Physics Center
- Day Three: Accelerator Division, Facilities Engineering Services Section, Business Services Section and Finance Section
Employees who are to be laid off but who are not at work on their notification days will be notified as soon as possible.
On the day of notification, a member of the employee's Division, Section or Center will ask each individual employee to be laid off to come to a private location. The manager and an HR representative will meet privately with each employee and tell him or her of the layoff decision. Employees will turn in their keys, access cards, TLD cards (radiation cards) and badges to their D/S/C management. Immediately following notification, each person will have a meeting with a benefits representative who will provide individualized information on the status of all benefits and other important information. (Laid-off employees will have the opportunity starting the following week to sign up for a more in-depth consultation with a benefits representative.) Next, employees will meet with a Lee Hecht Harrison outplacement counselor to obtain information about the career transition process.
Read more
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VMS head Fred Ullrich retires
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| Fred Ullrich |
Fred Ullrich, long-time manager of Fermilab's Visual Media Services Department, retired on May 1. Ullrich joined Fermilab in 1980 in the former Public Information Office. In 1983, he became a personnel administrator in the former Laboratory Services Section training office, where he created and produced training videos and inaugurated Fermilab's long-running "Video News" program. In 1987, Ullrich was appointed head of the newly created Visual Media Services Department, headquarters for photography, video production, duplicating, audiovisual services and, in later years, video streaming,
graphic services and new media.
"It was an honor to work at Fermilab," Ullrich said.
Judy Jackson, director of Fermilab's Office of Communication, recognized his unique contributions.
"Fred knows every nook and cranny of this laboratory, and nearly everyone who works here," Jackson said. "Under his leadership, Fermilab set the standard for the use of visual media for communicating particle physics. He is a gifted photographer. He combined his photographer's eye, his creativity and his sense of what was possible with his understanding of the laboratory's scientific mission to create a visual legacy that is apparent wherever we turn at Fermilab."
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Fossils and family fun at Family Outdoor Activity Fair
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| Kaitlyn Jeanette Padbury, the 7-year-old granddaughter of CD's Randolph Herber, uses a magnifying class to examine a private collection of fossils on loan from a docent during the Family Outdoor Activity Fair Sunday, April 27 at the Lederman Science Center. The sold out event attracted 300 people. |
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Astrophysics: Rays from the dark
From Nature, May 1, 2008
The origin of the cosmic rays that bombard Earth has troubled physicists for nigh on a century. Supernova remnants are a favoured source - but we should keep our minds open to alternatives.
Cosmic rays fall in a steady, imperceptible rain onto Earth. Despite their stealth, they are thought to influence both the climate of our planet and the evolution of its inhabitants. They are mainly protons and heavier nuclei, from helium upwards, and come in a wide range of energies. The most energetic are now thought to come from the active nuclei of remote galaxies1. But the origin of by far the larger component of the cosmic rain - 'galactic' cosmic rays of lower energies, from around a gigaelectronvolt to more than a million times that, 3 petaelectronvolts (PeV) - is an entirely different conundrum.
Read more
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The role of open source in grid computing: past, present and future
Open source software allows individual users to work with an initial shared material, adapt and tailor it to suit their own specific needs, and pass on their improvements to the rest of the community for continued improvement.
Image courtesy of Eric Gjerde
It is not long now until the first Open Source Grid and Cluster Conference, to be held in Oakland, California from 13-15 May 2008. This upcoming event got me thinking about the role of open source in grid and cluster computing, in the past, present, and future.
My involvement with open source dates to the early days of Globus, in the late 1990s. At that time, I (and my colleagues Carl Kesselman and Steve Tuecke) resolved that, in order to reduce barriers to grid technology adoption, Globus software should be freely available to anyone. To this end, we chose to release Globus software under a variant of the BSD Unix license. (Later we moved to the more modern Apache 2.0 license.) Those licenses are non-viral and industry friendly: they allow users to do whatever they like with the software-except sue us, as I always hasten to add.
The path less traveled by
This choice was not as obvious ten years ago as it might be now. Indeed, following the early success of Netscape, many research institutions saw Internet software as a road to riches. Thus, it took a while to persuade our employers and funders that Globus software had little value as proprietary software: that as a grid toolkit, its value would grow proportionally with overall adoption, which in turn would be accelerated by the use of an open source license.
Read more
-- Ian Foster, Computation Institute, Argonne National Laboratory and University of Chicago
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Janice Banner Roberts
Janice Banner Roberts, a former Fermilab employee and the wife of the late Dr. Arthur Roberts, also a former Fermilab employee, died of natural causes. She was 93.
Read her obituary
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Have a safe day!
NALWO Spring Tea May 5
Members of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Women's Organization will hold their Spring Tea on May 5 from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Barbara Oddone will host the event in her home, Site #29, located just inside the Wilson Street gate. Photo identification is necessary to enter the laboratory. When entering at Wilson Street, turn right at the driveway just beyond the gate. If possible, please bring a favorite dessert or appetizer from your home country. For additional information, contact Susan Kayser, Margie Nagaitsev or the Housing Office at (630) 840-3777.
Interaction Management course
Through practice and feedback for supervisors and managers, this course will teach the essential skills and discussion guidelines necessary for effective coaching. Learn more and enroll
Introduction to LabVIEW
Learn how to build and custom test, measurement and control applications from scratch, using intuitive, measurement-specific graphical programming. Learn more and enroll
Cross-step waltz workshops May 2, 3
Fermilab's dance groups will sponsor workshops on cross-step waltz, an accessible vernacular, vintage waltz style from 7:30-10 p.m. today, May 2, at Kuhn Barn on the Fermilab site, and tomorrow, May 3, at the Harvard Congregational Church, 1045 S Kenilworth Av, Oak Park. Both workshops will be taught by Jeanette Watts, a professional dance instructor from Dayton, Ohio. You don't need a partner or any dance experience to attend. Organizers request a $5 donation for the Fermilab workshop and a $10 donation for the Oak Park workshop.
New computer programming course
"C++ Exception Safety: Issues and Best Practices," the fourth course in the current series of "Selected Topics in Computer Programming," will take place on Thursday, May 8. As a new course aimed at programmers with C++ experience, it will deal indepth with error handling in modern C++ programs. Attendees will learn to analyze code for exception safety, and to apply language and library mechanisms in standard patterns that yield exception-safe code. There is no cost for the class and TRAIN credit will be awarded to participants. Course registration is now open.
English Country dancing Sunday
English Country Dancing will meet Sunday afternoon, May 3 at Kuhn Barn, from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Note the earlier starting time, and no potluck supper. Newcomers are always welcome and do not need a partner. The next meeting, with live music by Putting on Aires, will take place Sunday, May 25, at 2 p.m. at the Kuhn Barn. Contact folkdance@fnal.gov or call (630) 584-0825 or (630) 840-8194.
Classifieds
Find new classified ads on Fermilab Today.
Additional Activities
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Chance of showers 55°/36°
