Luz Jaquez - a guiding force for Particle Physics Division

Luz Jaquez

Luz Jaquez works tirelessly to ensure the professional needs of the Particle Physics Division's 400 employees are taken care of.

Jaquez, division administrator for the PPD, interfaces with scientists, the Travel Office and Human Resources on behalf of the division. Managing such a fluid group, with its constant influx and outflow of users, requires cheerful patience and an ability to handle all the variables that come with the territory. Jaquez has both in spades.

"Every week is a crisis around here, if not every day," said Mike Lindgren, PPD's acting division head. "The people who are really great are the ones who make the difficult seem routine. Luz just handles everything. She's unflappable."

Born and raised in Chicago, Jaquez first came to Fermilab in June 1991 as an on-call administrative employee working in the Computing Division. Days after she was hired, she was asked to work full-time for the Particle Physics Division (then called the Research Division). While employed as an administrative support assistant, she enrolled in college-level office administration and computer courses.

Her initiative paid off: Two years ago she was promoted to division administrator.

The gratification she derives from both assisting people over daily hurdles and seeing a task to its conclusion drives her as she operates as a hub in the PPD, expediting payroll, performance reviews and visas and passports.

"I just like helping people, and I figured an administrator is the best position to be in," Jaquez said. "It's very rewarding when a project is completed or a problem solved."

As to the crises that crop up from time to time, Jaquez said, "Yes, there are problems; yes, there are emergencies. But there's always a solution to a problem. That's the way I see it."

Jaquez makes sure to balance her career with a rich home life. When she isn't scrapbooking and putting together family albums, she joins her husband and three sons in cheering on the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

-- Leah Hesla

Phishing for summer students

To the newest group of summer students - welcome! We hope you enjoy your summer at the laboratory and we'd like to help make sure you can spend your summer enjoying your projects at Fermilab and not working through computer security issues.

Students, please be careful when using your computer account. In particular, since you are not familiar with how computer accounts are handled at the laboratory and don't know what kind of messages are legitimate, it is easy to be fooled by phishing e-mails.

Remember, you should never reveal your passwords to anyone at the laboratory for any reason: not to your supervisor, your system manager or even the computer security team. The e-mail message below was widely circulated at the laboratory this week by someone trying to trick people into giving up their account information. This message is NOT legitimate:

From: FNAL GOV WEBMAIL SECURITY
Date: June 15, 2010 2:14:19 AM CDT
To: Multiple recipients
Subject: TERMINATION OF YOUR FNAL GOV WEBMAIL ACCOUNT

TERMINATION OF YOUR FNAL GOV WEBMAIL ACCOUNT
We are currently carrying out an upgrade on our system due to the fact that it has come to our notice that one or more of our subscribers are introducing a very strong virus into our system and it is affecting our network. We are trying to find out the specific person. For this reason all subscribers are to provide their USER NAME AND PASSWORD for us to verify and have them cleared against this virus. Failure to comply will lead to the termination of your Account in the next 48 hours. Information to send.
EMAIL ADDRESS:
USERNAME:
PASSWORD:

Hoping to serve you better. Sincerely, FNAL GOV WEBMAIL Support

If you receive any e-mail at the laboratory that you have doubts about, show it to your supervisor and ask him or her for help. In general, messages that come from the laboratory include a telephone number you can call to verify the e-mail's authenticity.

Each computer user at Fermilab is our first line of defense against phishing exploits, so please be careful and enjoy your summer here at the laboratory.

-- Mark Leininger, Fermilab's computer security manager

Fermilab particle physicists wonder: Are there 5 Higgs bosons?

From 80 beats, a Discover magazine blog, June 15, 2010

If the Higgs boson is the "God Particle," then some particle physicists just turned polytheistic. To explain a recent experiment, they wonder if five Higgs bosons give our universe mass instead of one.

Last month, we discussed a curious experiment at the Tevatron particle accelerator at Fermilab near Chicago. Colliding protons and antiprotons, the Tevratron's DZero group found more matter than antimatter.

This agrees well with common sense-if the Big Bang had really churned out equal amounts of matter and antimatter, the particles would have annihilated each other, and we wouldn't be here. Unfortunately, the physics for this matter favoritism doesn't make sense.

Read more