On-site daycare gets top marks

The Fermilab daycare earned kudos for its positive teacher-student interactions seen here in a 2005 file photo.

The Fermilab on-site daycare earned national accreditation by the National Accreditation Commission for Early Care and Education Programs.

This recognition certifies that the daycare's early childhood programs "exemplify high standards in care and education." The commission commented on the daycare's overall compliance to national standards and the strong, positive teacher-child interactions.

"They talked about their review to us and it was really a learning environment," said Kay Van Vreede, head of the Workforce Development and Resources section. "We're really excited about this."

The accreditation helps the laboratory meet DOE standards and strengthens the laboratory's reputation as one of the best places to work in Chicagoland.

"Going through the process of accreditation has definitely been a group effort," said Pattie Hedrick, daycare head. "The staff at the center consistently works to ensure that the quality of child care offered at the center meets national standards. We have also been fortunate to have had a lot of support from Fermilab management, the families of the children enrolled at the center and many departments here at Fermilab."

To receive accreditation, the daycare submitted a self evaluation and then commission members interviewed staff and parents, reviewed daycare documents and made visits to classrooms. Reviewers critiqued the daycare in five areas: family engagement, interactions, health and safety, curriculum and administration.

Associate Head of ES&H Martha Michels, who had a child go through the daycare program, said she wasn't surprised at all that the daycare got such high marks.

"It's a great daycare," she said.

--Tona Kunz

Looking for food

AD's Greg Vogel sent in this photo of a red-tailed hawk scanning the area for food. The photo was taken Feb. 24 near the 8 GeV line.

Dr. George Coutrakon, former Fermilab physicist, to work with proton beam at the Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center

From Chicago Tribune, Feb. 26, 2009

When engineers and physicists at Fermilab were building the first proton accelerator for a medical application 20 years ago, Dr. George Coutrakon was in the thick of it.

Shivering in the winter, perspiring in the summer heat, Coutrakon and other physicists figured out how to produce a proton beam strong enough to radiate the deepest tumors with a machine that could be moved and manipulated to deliver radiation wherever a patient needed it. They did their work in a temporary building set up in a parking lot at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Batavia.

"We had to do our testing outside at night," Coutrakon, 57, recalled. "It turned out they weren't going to let us run during the day because there was not enough safety involved."

That accelerator that Fermilab built went to Loma Linda University, where it became the first hospital-based proton therapy cancer center in the nation. Coutrakon went with the accelerator to California, where he has worked as the director of beam operations.

Now Coutrakon has returned to the area where his journey into physics and medicine began: He will be technical director at the Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center, which is under construction in the DuPage National Technology Park in West Chicago.

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