Former summer intern helps boost nanotechnology

Federico Capasso and Mariano Zimmler of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Image courtesy of Eliza Grinnell, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

The newest approach in applying nanowires to computer microprocessor circuits got a boost from Fermilab's internship program.

Harvard graduate student Mariano Zimmler, a former Fermilab intern, with his Harvard colleague Federico Capasso, recently published a paper on how to speed up the process of turning nanowires into circuits, enabling industrialization of the process. The pair also is working on adapting the process for optical circuits, which carry data even faster. The Economist.com highlighted the research in its May issue.

Zimmler, who is a year away from his Ph.D. in solid-state physics, said his time working on computers in support of DZero in 2002 and later on Grid software in 2004 helped fuel his interest in computer technology.

"My time at Fermilab was absolutely critical to develop my computer skills, which I have applied in many areas of my research throughout the years," he said.

Zimmler started out in the Summer Internships in Science and Technology program. Faculty nominate students from their institutions, who spend 12 weeks helping out on experiments, working on the operation of the particle accelerator or developing support systems, such as computing.

"I would certainly recommend the program to others as a way to learn by tackling real-world problems," Zimmler said.

The SIST program, one of the oldest at DOE laboratories, started in 1971 and has mentored more than 600 students majoring in physics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and computer sciences.

"The SIST Committee strives every year to recruit the best undergraduate talent to Fermilab from a diverse spectrum of universities. It is very gratifying to see former students succeed in their fields and become accomplished professionals," said Dianne Engram, who oversees the program at Fermilab.

--Tona Kunz

House appropriators release FY2009 Department of Energy funding bill

From AIP FYI, June 18, 2008

Yesterday evening the House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee approved by a voice vote its version of the FY 2009 funding bill for the Department of Energy. Details about this $33.3 billion bill will not be known until the full House Appropriations Committee considers the bill next Tuesday. As now written, the bill provides $2.4 billion more than this year's budget, and is $2.1 billion above that requested by President Bush.

Subcommittee Chairman Peter Visclosky's (D-IN) opening remarks at the mark up provides aggregate funding levels in this bill, and the subcommittee's rationale for its actions. Excerpts from Chairman Visclosky's remarks follow, with bolding used for emphasis on funding levels (not in the same order as spoken):

SCIENCE:

"The bill recommends over $4.86 billion for science, $140 million above the President's request and an increase of $844 million over the fiscal year 2008 enacted level. Science funds cutting-edge energy research which will be critical for addressing our long-term energy needs. This bill substantially funds the increase in the Science account authorized in the America COMPETES Act. It will provide for 2,600 more research personnel, including graduate students, to address major concerns over the availability of highly educated scientists and engineers whose innovations drive economic growth. The Committee also makes major investments in laboratory infrastructure, embraces proposals to build two dozen Energy Frontier Research Centers focused on addressing critical energy research needs, and provides $539 million, $15 million above the President's request, for climate change research and scientific computing efforts."

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Groundbreaking today for NIU proton therapy center

A groundbreaking celebration for the Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center -the first cancer treatment and research center of its kind in Illinois -- will be held at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, June 19.

The center will open in 2010 at 777 Discovery Drive in the DuPage National Technology Park, adjacent to Fermilab. Thursday's groundbreaking ceremony is open to Fermilab employees.

A dozen people, including Fermilab Director Pier Oddone will speak to an expected crowd of between 250 and 300 people about the technology and new facility.

Fermilab in the mid-1980s assisted in building and assembling the country's first hospital-based proton treatment system for Loma Linda University Medical Center in California.

With Fermilab and Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois has continued to be a world leader in the development of accelerator technologies, and NIU has relied on the expertise of scientists at both laboratories in planning for the new proton center, according to an NIU press release.