Fermilab Today Friday, Oct. 16, 2009
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Friday, Oct. 16
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK 2nd Flr X-Over
THERE WILL BE NO JOINT EXPERIMENTAL-THEORETICAL PHYSICS SEMINAR THIS WEEK
8 p.m.
Fermilab Lecture Series, Ramsey Auditorium, $7
Dr. Domenico Meli, Indiana University presents: Galileo and the Investigation of Nature

Monday, Oct. 19
2:30 p.m.
Particle Astrophysics Seminar Dark Side - WH-6NW
Speaker: Ali Vanderverld, California Institute of Technology
Title: Testing General Relativity on Cosmological Scales with Weak Gravitational Lensing
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
All Experimenters' Meeting - Curia II
Special Topic: Repair of the ArgoNeuT Cryocooler

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44°/36°

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Current Security Status

Secon Level 3

Wilson Hall Cafe

Friday, Oct. 16
- Chorizo burrito
- Old-fashioned ham and bean soup
- Philly-style chicken
- Chicken pot pie
- Baked fish over rice
- Roasted veggie and provolone panini
- Assorted slices of pizza
- Baked potatoes

Wilson Hall Cafe menu

Chez Leon

Wednesday, Oct. 21
Lunch
- Cherry-glazed cornish hens with sourdough cherry stuffing
- Steamed broccoli
- Oatmeal pecan pie

Thursday, Oct. 22
Closed

Chez Leon menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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In Memoriam

In Memoriam: John Elias

John Elias, on the right, at dinner during a 1996 meeting between teams working on the CMS hadron calorimeter in the town of Dubna, Russia.

John Elias, who worked at Fermilab for more than 30 years before retiring in 2005, died Oct. 7 at the age of 69 while visiting family in Seattle.

The cause of death was a heart attack, his family said.

Colleagues described Elias as relentlessly upbeat, wise and always willing to lend his extensive technical expertise.

"If we had noise in a detector, we'd bring John in to try to figure out how we had screwed it up," said Fermilab physicist Julie Whitmore, who worked with Elias on the CMS experiment.

Elias came to Fermilab in 1973 to work in the Meson Department, a department he would later head. In 1980 he began working on the design of the CDF calorimeter electronics, later joining a collaboration for the Superconducting Super Collider. He joined the CMS collaboration in 1994, where he was in charge of electronics for the detector's hadron calorimeter until he retired.

Elias was well known in the field for getting groups to work together. Even after retiring in 2005, Elias continued to contribute and still had a desk near his former colleagues.

Fermilab scientist Dan Green, who began working with John in the 1970s, said Elias was mellow, didn't have an ego and had a balanced home life. While not at the lab, Elias often got away to the Wisconsin vacation home he built. There he fished, took care of his border collies and spent time with family.

"He was just a very happy guy who lived life to its fullest," said Fermilab scientist Jim Freeman, who worked with Elias for 25 years. "He'd come up to you and be genuinely happy to see you."

He is survived by his wife, Carol, his daughters, Jennifer and Catherine, and two grandchildren. Visitation begins at 1 p.m. and services begin at 2 p.m. on Oct. 25 at the DuPage County Historical Museum, 102 E. Wesley St., Wheaton, Ill. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to any environmental charity or the Northern Illinois Food Bank.

Chris Knight

Special Announcement

Hot Buttered Rum performs next Saturday at Fermilab

When eco-conscious band Hot Buttered Rum arrives at Fermilab on Oct. 24 to perform in Ramsey Auditorium, they will have more than feel-good green vibes to win over the audience. For starters, the five-member band, which formed during a backcountry hike through the Sierra Nevadas, will arrive by a vegetable oil-powered bus. From there the band will weave fiddle, banjo, flutes, bass, clarinet, guitar and vocals into a mix of bluegrass and folk, playing songs off their new album "Limbs Akimbo" and their debut full-length album "Well-Oiled Machine". Visit their Web site for a preview of their songs.

The eco-consciousness is more than just a publicity stunt. Environmental messages form the basis for much of their songwriting and the band makes a conscious effort to sell merchandise produced locally and sustainably.

The concert at Ramsey Auditorium begins at 8 p.m., but arrive at 7 p.m. for a pre-concert talk about the band's veggie-diesel tour bus. Tickets are $25 for adults and $13 for ages 18 and under. Visit the Fermilab Arts Series Web site for more information.

In the News

Fermilab Recovery Act Funds boost SLAC accelerator tech

From SLAC Today, Oct. 15, 2009

This month, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory will receive a major financial boost to help drive the design and fabrication of components for a prototype next-generation accelerator being built at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Fermilab has apportioned $3 million in funding from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act toward development and delivery of radio frequency power couplers and power distribution technology by the Linac and Radio Frequency Design Group in SLAC's Accelerator Research Division. The work has applications for proposed future accelerator projects.

Read more

Recovery Act Feature

Fermilab cryomodule move advances SRF progress

Chris Exline, PPD, uses a remote to guide a 40-foot-long cryomodule into the test cave at the SRF Test Facility.

The latest and largest portion of Fermilab's superconducting radio frequency test accelerator floated into place Tuesday, as smoothly as a ship making port.

The 8-ton cryomodule is a major component of Fermilab's new RF-unit test facility. Its latest move is the last step of a long journey that began nearly three years ago.

The 1,200 cryomodule parts started to arrive at Fermilab in 2007 in the form of a kit from DESY, a German particle physics laboratory, and INFN, the Italian national institute for nuclear physics. During the next several months, DESY and Fermilab technicians assembled the kit in the lab's new Cryomodule Assembly Facility. A recent boost from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will now dramatically speed up Fermilab's effort to renovate and expand the New Muon Lab into a state-of-the-art Superconducting Radio Frequency Test Facility. The facility will house the first cryomodule assembled at the laboratory and the only completed cryomodule in the United States.

The yellow tube, which resembles a research submarine, contains a series of superconducting radio frequency cavities that can efficiently accelerate particles to high energies. The ability to build and test components with this type of cutting-edge technology signals that Fermilab is rapidly acquiring the skills needed to build the proposed Project X and International Linear Collider.

Fermilab engineers and technicians guided the cryomodule across an area about the size of a soccer field using an overhead crane. PPD's Chris Exline captained the crane as technicians and engineers used guide ropes to keep the 40-foot-long tube on course. Within 45 minutes it had descended to dock inside what will become the accelerator tunnel. During installation the crew had to align the cryomodule perfectly with cooling lines and avoid grazing any part that might destroy the precise cavity alignment inside the cryomodule.

Crews will spend the next few weeks connecting the cryomodule to cooling lines and RF power systems.

Eventually the cryomodule will become part of a six-cryomodule-long accelerator to test proposed projects like Project X and the ILC. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will fund a large portion of the facility, including the civil construction project to expand the building by 202 feet to accommodate the beam line and for a new building housing the large cryogenic refrigerator and test stands. The expansion begins in December and first beam is expected late in 2012.

— Tona Kunz

Visit Fermilab's Recovery Act Web site.

Announcements

Latest Announcements

Chicago Bulls discount tickets

Frank Oppenheimer and the World He Made Up - Oct. 20

Chicago Blackhawks discount tickets available

International folk dancing tonight at Kuhn Village barn

Applications of High-Intensity Proton Accelerators workshop - Oct. 19-21

Access 2007: Intro class - Oct. 20

Interpersonal Communication Skills - Oct. 21

Children's Halloween Party - Oct. 23

Buttered Rum performs at Fermilab Arts Series- Oct. 24

Director's Award nominations accepted until Oct. 26

Conflict Management and Negotiation Skills - Oct. 28, Nov. 11

Facilitating Meetings That Work - Nov. 4

Fred Garbo Inflatable Theatre at Fermilab Arts Series - Nov. 7

Process Piping (ASME B31.3) class offered in October and November

"The Night Before Christmas Carol" at Fermilab Arts Series - Dec. 5

Annual Enrollment now running

Discount movie tickets available

Discounted Fright Fest tickets

Mentors wanted for Diversity Office's FermiLINK program

Thai Village restaurant discount

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