An important day

U.S. Delegation to the LHC Inauguration and members of the CMS Collaboration in front of the CMS detector. Front row, from left to right: Moishe Pripstein, NSF; NSF Director Arden Bement, Jr.; DOE Under Secretary for Science Raymond Orbach; US CMS Project Manager Joel Butler; Otto Van Maerssen, U.S. Mission to the UN in Geneva. Back row, left to right: Bob Cousins, CMS Deputy Spokesperson; Fermilab Director Pier Oddone; Head of the NSF Europe Office David Stonner; John Ellis, CERN; Dennis Kovar, DOE; Michelangelo Mangano, CERN. Courtesy of Kathleen Yurkewicz.

Yesterday was the much-anticipated inauguration of the Large Hadron Collider. It was an extraordinary day in which CERN hosted 42 delegations from member countries, observer states and collaborating countries. CERN staff piloted all these delegations through the LHC detectors in a beautifully organized fashion, with enough time to appreciate the layout and main design features of the detectors. The delegations arrived in perfect timing to the afternoon ceremony.

Before the visit to the detectors and the formal ceremony, the NSF participants led by NSF Director Dr. Ardent Bement, and the DOE participants, led by Undersecretary for Science Ray Orbach, attended a briefing by the U.S. groups participating in the accelerator and the two principal detectors CMS and ATLAS. The U.S. contribution has been very large. Now nearly 1,100 U.S. scientific authors will get the physics out of CMS and ATLAS. Many U.S. scientists play leading roles in these collaborations. They host nearly 350 U.S. Ph.D. students. The detectors are powerful and complex, each the product of intricate management to bring nearly 40 countries together. They are models of international collaboration and participation. We at Fermilab are very proud of the role we play in CMS where Fermilab has made the U.S. participation enormously effective. On the machine front, Fermilab accelerator physicists are helping commission the machine and are much appreciated for their experience and contributions.

In the afternoon the President of Switzerland, the prime minister of France, and several science minister from member countries participated in the inauguration ceremony. Fourteen hundred guests filled one of the big assembly halls where CERN had assembled and tested the LHC magnets. The various talks gave a view of the scientific discoveries possible with the LHC, the long road to the construction of the LHC and the great institution that is CERN, an alliance of 20 member states that support the institution through thick and thin. The strong statements of support by the representatives of many member countries for the pursuit of knowledge, for particle physics and for CERN were heartening. Everyone understood that we now have to make the machine work and that CERN can count on their unwavering support fixing the damage from the September 19 event.

The ceremony concluded with the premier of "Origins," a "visual concert" commissioned by CERN and adapted from "LIFE: a Journey through Life" produced by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Santa Cruz. Thee Orchestre de la Suisse Romande played a new composition by Philip Glass while giant screens showed photographs and videos by Frans Lanting of the marvels of the universe and the earth we inhabit. This was a fitting ending for a beautiful ceremony carried out with élan in the face of the arduous work that remains to bring the machine to life next spring.

ES&H weekly report, Oct. 21

This week's safety report, compiled by the Fermilab ES&H section, lists three injuries reported last week. One injury, in which an employee's leg was pinned between a die table and a motorized jack, is reportable. We have now worked 11 days since the last recordable injury. Find the full report here.

Safety report archive

Have a safe day!

Town hall meeting with future director general of CERN
Fermilab will host an open town hall meeting with Rolf-Dieter Heuer, the designated director general of CERN, Oct. 28, at 10:45 a.m. in Ramsey Auditorium, followed by a reception in the WH Art Gallery (2nd floor) at noon. The town hall meeting includes a 10-minute talk by Heuer and a 60-minute Q&A session. Everyone is invited. Heuer would like to meet with all members of the U.S. particle physics community.

DreamWeaver CS3: Advanced Nov. 5
An advanced course in Dreamweaver CS3 will take place Nov. 5. Attendees can learn to establish database connectivity, work with record sets, create interactive page elements and administer database records and Web sites. Attendees can also learn to create a user authentication system. Learn more and enroll

PowerPoint 2003 class Nov. 11
A course in PowerPoint will take place Nov. 11. Attendees can learn to apply multimedia techniques to a PowerPoint presentation in order to create a slide show that will appeal to any audience. Learn more and enroll.

Traffic safety poster contest
The Traffic Safety Subcommittee is sponsoring a traffic safety poster contest for fourth and fifth grade students of Fermilab employees, users and contractors. The posters should promote increased traffic safety awareness. Entries are due Oct. 31. The contest winner will be announced in Fermilab Today. The top posters will be displayed in the Wilson Hall atrium. For more information and an entry form, click here.

Interpersonal Communication Skills course Nov. 11
A course in interpersonal communication skills will take place Nov. 11 for scientific, computing, engineering and technical staff. Attendees can increase their awareness of their communication skills and personality type. Attendees can also develop skills for more productive work relationships. Learn more and enroll

 
Additional Activities