Fermilab's Seiya wins Science and Technology Award

Kiyomi Seiya

When the idea for slip stacking first arose in the particle physics community in the 1980s, scientists thought it was too complicated to work.

But two decades later, Kiyomi Seiya led the effort to implement slip stacking in Fermilab's Main Injector, increasing the beam intensity by 70 percent. And she continues to work toward making even greater intensity improvements.

Seiya's innovation and determination were recognized recently when she was announced as one of the winners of the 2009 IEEE/NPSS Particle Accelerator Science and Technology Award.

"Seiya was innovative, creative and determined to get this done," said AD head Roger Dixon, who nominated her for the award.

To slip stack, one batch of protons from the Booster is inserted into the Main Injector alongside another batch, doubling the number of protons that are accelerated in the Main Injector. Seiya is currently working on improving the technique for the NOvA experiment, which will require a big boost in beam power when it starts running after the Tevatron shuts down.

Seiya is the right person for the job, said Ioanis Kourbanis, who has supervised Seiya since she started working at the laboratory.

"Kiyomi is pretty modest. She is a hard and dedicated worker with a good knowledge of theory and radiofrequency hardware, which is unique," Kourbanis said. "It took a lot of different pieces and Kiyomi put that all together."

Seiya obtained her Ph.D. in engineering from Miyazaki University, Japan, in 1999 and worked as a researcher at KEK until 2000, when she started working at Fermilab in the Main Injector as a research associate. Seiya was promoted to associate scientist in 2004. She will accept the award at the PAC conference in Vancouver in May.

"I feel that it is not just my hour," Seiya said. "This is for everyone who worked on slip stacking."

-- Rhianna Wisniewski

Nominations now accepted for 2009 Alvin Tollestrup Award

At each year's Users' meeting, Fermilab pioneer Alvin Tollestrup presents an outstanding postdoc with his namesake award. Nominations for that award will be accepted until Monday, April 20.

All Ph.D. researchers in non-tenure-track or equivalent positions at Fermilab or Universities Research Association-member institutions, or institutions collaborating in Fermilab projects are eligible. Postdocs must be within six years of the receipt of their Ph.D. Qualified work must be in conjunction with a Fermilab experiment or accelerator project or under the auspices of the Fermilab Theory or Astrophysics Groups.

Candidates may nominate themselves for the award. Applications must include: a CV, list of publications and invited talks, a short paper of 10 or fewer pages describing the research and no more than two letters of support from scientists familiar with the work.

Award winners receive a certificate of recognition and a check for $3,500 from URA. Nomination materials should be e-mailed as pdf or plain text documents to usersoffice@fnal.gov by April 20.

Visit the Alvin Tollestrup award Web site for more information about the award and the selection process.

Fed money stimulates construction of NE MN physics lab

From Minnesota Public Radio, March 26, 2009

A big construction project planned for the woods south of International Falls, will soon be creating jobs courtesy of the federal economic stimulus plan. The project is in St. Louis County, which now has an unemployment rate around 10 percent. The University of Minnesota is building a high-tech particle physics lab just outside Voyageurs National Park. The project is intended to explain some of the fundamental building blocks of the universe.

You'd have to have been 2,400 feet underground this week to see it, but there were a lot of broad smiles on the faces in the underground physics lab below the Soudan Mine State Park.

Lab director Bill Miller learned the money had finally been approved for a new physics facility in northeast Minnesota.

"Oh, it was great," Miller said. "It's been one of those big rushes of up and down."

This project was supposed to start more than a year ago, but the funding got chopped in a federal budget standoff.

Miller can thank the bad economy and the federal government's new willingness to spend for the project's new life. More than $40 million has been approved for the lab in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - a small piece of the $1.6 billion allocated to the U.S. Department of Energy.

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