Celebrating safety on the roads

Fermilab's drivers pose for a photo with members of the Directorate, ES&H and Business Services Section. The drivers received an award June 16 for their safe driving records.

On June 16, Fermilab Director Pier Oddone, Deputy Director Young-Kee Kim and Chief Operating Officer Bruce Chrisman joined supervisors from the Business Services Section to commend Fermilab drivers for their exceptional safety record. Since November 2007, the laboratory's 14 professional drivers have logged more than 130,000 miles without a preventable accident.

"That is a fantastic achievement," Oddone said as he presented a National Safety Council award to drivers assembled in the Transportation Services dispatch office.

After commending their work, Oddone and Kim stayed for a lunch with the group. Over slices of pizza, the drivers chatted about their experiences on the job.

"Any tips from the pros?" Kim asked.

"It's all about trying to be careful-looking and looking again," said driver Bill Stearns. "You always need to know what's going on."

Greg Mitchell, senior safety officer for Business Services Section, agreed.

"Our drivers take the time to understand the site," he added. "That's one reason we have a great safety record."

"It's great to have this recognition," said Stearns, who has driven at Fermilab for 28 years. "It's an incentive to keep striving."

-- Rachel Carr

Ask an auditor

On Friday June 26, from 10:30 a.m. - noon in the Auditorium, the Department of Energy auditors who recently conducted the cyber-security portion of the laboratory's Safeguards and Security Audit will present their findings and recommendations. This is an opportunity for system administrators, users and managers to hear firsthand what the auditors have to say about the problems they found in our environment. There will be technical and policy presentations and an opportunity for questions. The Tune IT Up Campaign is underway to address the findings.

Extreme Beam lecture Thursday, 4 p.m. in One West

The eighth lecture of the Extreme Beam lecture series will take place at 4 p.m. Thursday in One West. Kevin Lesko, from the Nuclear Science Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will give a talk titled "Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory."

The lecture series, which features talks at Fermilab throughout 2009, gives in-depth information about the science and accelerator and detector technologies that will create a world-leading physics program at the Intensity Frontier.

Visit the Extreme Beam Web site for more information.

A day in the life of Debbie Harris, Fermilab scientist

From Batavia Republican, June 17, 2009

There are no normal days in the life of Fermilab scientist Debbie Harris.

Harris, project manager of the MINERvA - which stands for Main INjector ExpeRiment v-A - Neutrino Experiment, said her day can be filled with meetings with other scientists or the United States Department of Energy, have her checking the detector for consistency and workability or checking snapshots of neutrinos from detectors to see what they are getting.

As Harris tells it, neutrinos have no charge, weigh close to nothing, are more numerous than protons, neutrons and electrons, and almost never interact with other particles.

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