Fermilab Today Friday, Feb. 13, 2009
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Friday, Feb. 13
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4:00 p.m.
Joint Experimental-Theoretical Physics Seminar - One West
Speaker: Yurii Maravin, Kansas State University
Title: Observation of Z γ → ν ν γ at DZero 8:00 p.m.
Fermilab International Film Society - Auditorium
Tickets: Adults $5
Title: Triumph of the Will

Saturday, Feb. 14
8:00 p.m.
Fermilab Arts Series - Auditorium
Tickets: $25/$12
The Dixie Hummingbirds

Monday, Feb. 16
2:30 p.m.
Particle Astrophysics Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: Lisa Goodenough, New York University
Title: To Be Announced
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4:00 p.m.
All Experimenters' Meeting - Curia II

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

Weather
Weather

Partly cloudy
41°/26°

Extended Forecast
Weather at Fermilab

Current Security Status

Secon Level 3

Wilson Hall Cafe
Friday, Feb. 13
- Smart cuisine: Italian wedding
- Fresh salmon cakes
- Cajun breaded catfish
- Chicken marsala
- Roasted vegetable panini
- Assorted sliced pizza
- Smart cuisine: *carved turkey

*Carb restricted alternative

Wilson Hall Cafe Menu

Chez Leon

Wednesday, Feb. 18
Lunch
- Swiss steak
- Mashed potatoes
- Steamed broccoli
- Praline cheesecake

Thursday, Feb. 19
Valentines Dinner
- Closed

Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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Feature

Fermilab welcomes minority students for Black History Month

Elmie Peoples-Evans works on a beam synchronization card for the Tevatron.

Engineer Elmie Peoples-Evans knew she wanted to be an engineer since she took apart her sister’s Susie Scribbles Doll in the eighth grade.

But it wasn’t until she got to college that she found a black, female engineer to emulate.

Peoples-Evans, an APC/HINS engineer, doesn’t want others to lack role models so she will host “High Energy…High Ambitions,” on Feb. 18 at Fermilab in the hopes of inspiring young students to pursue careers in science. More than 250 students from 11 Chicagoland high schools are expected to attend the day of lectures by speakers from groups underrepresented in science.

Peoples-Evans is excited to make students aware of avenues they might not have considered. “I want them to know they can be the behind-the-scenes people making these really cool things,” Peoples-Evans said.

Fermilab has 86 employees of African decent, accounting for 4 percent of its work force. Sandra Charles, who is organizing the event as Chair of the Diversity Council’s Planning Group for Multicultural Events, said the event is part of Fermilab’s larger mission to recognize its diverse population.

Rather than simply celebrating diversity, the idea is “to acknowledge and welcome the diverse perspectives that make our workforce so rich,” Charles said.

Fermilab director Pier Oddone started the Diversity Council two years ago to increase the diversity of Fermilab. The Council also promotes community outreach activities.

During the “High Energy…High Ambitions” event, the Muntu dance group will perform at noon in Ramsey Auditorium. The performance is open to all Fermilab employees.

Also in celebration of Black History Month, the Dixie Hummingbirds gospel group will perform at Ramsey Auditorium on Feb.14 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 for adults and $13 those 18 and younger.

--Kristine Crane

Special Announcement

Volunteers needed to plan Asian event

Fermilab will recognize the Asian/Pacific Heritage Month in May. People interested in helping plan events to celebrate the month should attend a meeting at 11 a.m. Feb. 17 in One North.

Fermilab follows the Library of Congress definition of Asian/Pacific ethnicity, which encompasses people from all of the Asian continent and the pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Soloman Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zeland, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island).

The designation of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month was signed into law in 1992.

In the News

What's in the Stimulus Bill

From the BusinessWeek, Feb. 12, 2009

SCIENCE AND RESEARCH

  • $3 billion for the National Science Foundation for basic research in fundamental science and engineering.

  • $1.6 billion for the Energy Dept.'s Office of Science, which funds research in such areas as climate science, biofuels, high-energy physics, nuclear physics, and fusion energy sciences—areas crucial to our energy future.

  • $400 million for the Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy to support high-risk, high-payoff research into energy sources and energy efficiency in collaboration with industry.

  • $580 million for the National Institute of Standards & Technology, including the Technology Innovation Program and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

  • $8.5 billion for the National Institutes of Health, including expanding good jobs in biomedical research to study diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, cancer, and heart disease.

  • $1.5 billion for NIH to renovate university research facilities.

  • $1 billion for the National Aeronautics & Space Administration, including $400 million to put more scientists to work doing climate change research.

Read more

In the News

Hollywood comes to CERN

From Interactions.org, Feb. 12, 2009

GENEVA, 12 February 2009 -- CERN today hosted a visit from actors Tom Hanks and Ayelet Zurer and director Ron Howard as they unveiled exclusively some select footage from their new film adaptation of Dan Brown's novel Angels & Demons, set for worldwide release by Sony Pictures on 15 May 2009.

When Sony Pictures first contacted CERN early in 2007 about filming part of Angels & Demons there, the laboratory quickly saw an opportunity and was excited to participate.

Read more

From ISGTW:

Grids and Clouds: GridBriefing just released

Photo courtesy of GridTalk

So, we’ve all heard about clouds and grids. But what are the pluses and minuses of each approach? For that matter, just what exactly is a “cloud?” A just-published paper goes into this and more, with comparisons of grid computing and cloud computing.

Written by former iSGTW editor Cristy Burne (now of GridTalk) and available as a GridBriefing at the GridTalk website, the four-page document dissects the benefits and drawbacks of each approach, and draws upon opinions and sources as diverse as Hewlett Packard and the European Software Association. There is also a quick-reference chart that goes into such meat-and-potatoes issues as:

  • Who provides the service?
  • Who uses the service?
  • Who pays for it?
  • Where are the computing resources?
  • Why use them?
  • What are they useful for?
  • How do they work?

Pointers

The GridBriefing has pointers to further essays and studies of grids and clouds, including a new, invaluable, much longer, e-Infrastructure ReflectionGroup (e-IRG) White Paper, written by Fotis Karagiannis of the Athens University of Economy and Business. The White Paper is in public consultation phase from now until 6 March, and the author is asking people to read it and send in comment to their archive, or to fkara at aueb.gr.

Seven topics were selected and examined in-depth in the document: Grid and cloud computing, Security, Education and training, Global
collaboration, Sustainability of the computing-related e-Infrastructure, Remote instrumentation, and Virtualization.

These hot topics were chosen after several rounds of consultation with experts belonging to the e-Infrastructure community, and were presented
to the e-IRG delegates at the e-IRG workshop in April 2008, in Zurich.

The initial reactions of cloud bloggers such as Markus Klems (“Cloudy Times: Random Thoughts of Markus Klems") are positive, saying: “Instead of describing theoretical features of grids and clouds, the authors take a look at two concrete implementations: the EGEE grid and the Amazon cloud (EC2+S3). This approach seems reasonable as it avoids long-lasting, fruitless discussions about how to define clouds and grids . . . Simplicity is an architectural design choice that I believe to be the major success factor of Amazon-style cloud computing. Easy-to-use interfaces allow third-party developers to hook into the cloud and build their own frameworks and tools on top of it.

Or, as the e-IRG authors put it: “In the medium term, the greatest potential benefit of cloud, as proposed by Amazon, is probably not the service itself, but its interfaces and usage patterns.”

For further information, see the e-IRG Facebook groups site and the press release.

—Dan Drollette, iSGTW

Announcements

Latest Announcements

On-site housing - Summer 2009

Have a safe day!

Daycamp information and registration

2009 standard mileage reimbursement Rate

Muscle Toning classes

Outlook 2007 New Features classes scheduled Feb. 26

Nominations requested for job profiles

Fermilab Barnstormers

Bulgarian Dance Workshop, Feb. 12

Barn Dance Feb. 15

Kyuki Do classes - Feb. 16

Facilitating Meetings That Work class offered Feb. 16

Fermilab Blood Drive Feb. 17 & 18

Argentine Tango Classes begin Feb. 18

NALWO - Mardi Gras Potluck Dinner - Feb. 20

Discount tickets: World's Toughest Rodeo presents Toughest Cowboy - Feb. 21

NALWO - Brown Bag Lunch Program - "Australia: Travels in the Land Down Under" - Feb. 24

English Country Dancing, March 1

Introduction to LabVIEW class offered March 5

NALWO - Adler Planetarium Trip - March 21

Child Care program offered - March 24

Conflict Management & Negotiation Skills class offered April 1

Interpersonal Communication Skills class being offered April 8

 
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