Fermilab Today

Friday, Sept. 17, 2010

Friday, Sept. 17
11 a.m.
Particle Astrophysics Seminar - Curia II (NOTE TIME & LOCATION)
Speaker: Peter Meszaros, Pennsylvania State University
Title: Gamma Ray Bursts: Recent Developments Based on Fermi and Swift Satellite Observations
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Joint Experimental-Theoretical Physics Seminar - One West
Speaker: Andrew Haas, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Title: Looking for the Hidden and the Quirky at DZero

Monday, Sept. 20
2:30 p.m.
Particle Astrophysics Seminar - One West
Speaker: Lorenzo Faccioli, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Title: Latest Constraints on Dark Energy from the Supernova Cosmology Project (SCP) and Self Calibration
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
All Experimenter's Meeting - Curia II
Special Topic: 30 KWatt CW at 650 MHz

Click here for NALCAL,
a weekly calendar with links to additional information.

Upcoming conferences

Take Five
Tune IT Up

Mostly sunny
74°/58°

Extended Forecast
Weather at Fermilab

Secon Level 3

Friday, Sept. 17
- Breakfast: Chorizo burrito
- Old-fashioned ham & bean soup
- Philly-style chicken
- Chicken pot pie
- Smart cuisine: Baked fish over rice
- Roasted veggie & provolone panini
- Assorted sliced pizza
- Baked potatoes

Wilson Hall Cafe Menu

Wednesday, Sept. 22
Lunch
- Stuffed eggplant
- Marinated garden salad
- Luscious lemon poke cake

Thursday, Sept. 23
Dinner
- Stuffed mushrooms
- Blackened grouper
- Dirty rice
- Maque choux
- Mocha fudge bread pudding

Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

Fermilab Today
Result of the Week
Safety Tip of the Week
CMS Result of the Month
User University Profiles
ILC NewsLine

Fermilab Today
is online at:
www.fnal.gov/today/

Send comments and suggestions to:
today@fnal.gov

Visit the Fermilab
home page

Unsubscribe from Fermilab Today

Aviation photography exhibit takes wing in the Art Gallery

Aviation photographer Rob Bach shows off one of the pieces on display now in the Fermilab Art Gallery.

From 40,000 feet above the Earth, a pilot with a camera has an unusual perspective of the skyscape; an ideal place for photographer Rob Bach to combine his love of art and airplanes. His exhibit, Aviation, will be on display in the Fermilab Art Gallery until Dec. 3.

"We try to have a varied group of exhibits, and I thought this was a good fit for us," said Georgia Schwender, Fermilab Art Gallery director. "It's pretty unusual to have a pilot who's also a photographer and is really passionate about both."

A Wisconsin native, Bach has been photographing airplanes and views from airplanes since high school.

"Both my parents are pilots," he said. "When we were kids, instead of getting a babysitter, they'd let us run loose around the airport and climb in planes."

Many of his images are from antique airplane conventions throughout the country.

"I see them as not just machinery for getting us from A to B," Bach said of the vintage planes. "They've got personality; most of the old ones were built by hand and on the fly. Now that everything is mass-produced we're losing the aesthetic."

His photos capture the individuality of wings, propellers and other components, which Bach believes are beautiful because their form is perfect for their function.

Other pieces are more unusual, including a ghostly looking plane draped in toilet paper Bach photographed at the crack of sunrise -- right after the teenagers he'd hired to TP it had made their getaway.

The Fermilab Art Gallery will host a reception with Bach from 5-7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 17. More of Bach's work can be seen here.

--Sara Reardon

Classes, events and discounts for September

This month, the Benefits/Recreation Department will sponsor the following wellness events:

Qi Gong, Mindfulness & Tai Chi Easy: From noon - 12:45 p.m. on Fridays in Ramsey Auditorium.

Ending the Silence: From noon-1 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 5, in WH One North. Speaker: Pat Doyle, National Alliance on Mental Illness. Learn about free resources NAMI has to offer. Organized in collaboration with Unity Coat/Disability Awareness.

In Our Own Voice: from noon-1 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 12, in One West. Pat Doyle, National Alliance on Mental Illness, will present compelling personal stories of living with mental illness and achieving recovery. Organized in collaboration with Unity Coat/Disability Awareness.

Employee clubs:

Weightwatchers at Work: an informational/registration meeting will take place from 12:30-1 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 29, in the Aquarium, WH15W. The next series of meetings will take place from noon-1 p.m. for 13 weeks on Wednesdays beginning on Oct. 6 and continuing through Dec. 29. The cost is $156 or three payments of $52.

Scrappers: From 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month. The next meeting is Oct. 5 in the Aquarium, WH15W. Cost: $10 a person. Bring scissors, adhesive and journaling pen. Supplies provided for themed and generic layouts.

Card Stampers: from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month. The next meeting is Oct. 12 in the Aquarium, WH15W. Cost: $10 a person. Bring scissors, adhesive and a journaling pen. Supplies provided for three cards.

Toastmasters: From noon-1 p.m. on Thursdays Oct. 7 and 21 in the Racetrack, WH7.

Indoor Athletic Leagues: E-mail the contacts below to find out more information about leagues.

Basketball: Brian Niesman;
bniesman@fnal.gov
Open Badminton: Aaron Chou;
achou@fnal.gov
Volleyball: Sergey Los;
los@fnal.gov
Singles Tennis: John Yoh;
johny@fnal.gov
Doubles Tennis: Don Flynn;
flynn@fnal.gov

Check out the Recreation website.

Employee discounts: Check the employee discount web page for more information.

Accelerators for America's Future

From The AIP Bulletin of Science Policy News, Sept. 8, 2010

"For optimizing knowledge-based resources in science and technology, and for sustaining an environment for new and revitalized industries and the well-paying jobs they bring, a beam of particles is a very useful tool." - Department of Energy: "Accelerators for America's Future"

Approximately one year ago the Department of Energy's Office of High Energy Physics held a well-attended one-day symposium followed by a series of workshops to review "the challenges and opportunities for developing and deploying accelerators to meet national needs." Earlier this summer DOE released a 100-page report entitled Accelerators for America's Future that presents the findings of the five workshops in key application areas. This report, as described by Walter Henning and Charles Shank, the symposium and workshop chairs, is "a resource for agencies as they develop their agendas and programs." The report's findings and recommendations will serve as a foundation for a technology R&D strategic plan that will be developed by the Office of Science.

Fermilab Director Pier Oddone and CERN Director General Rolf Heuer

Editor's note: This column also appears in today's CERN Bulletin.

The press makes much of the competition between CERN's LHC and Fermilab's Tevatron in the search for the Higgs boson. This competitive aspect is real, and probably adds spice to the scientific exploration, but for us such reporting often feels like spilling the entire pepper shaker over a fine meal. The media's emphasis on competition obscures the more important substance of our long-standing collaboration in scientific discovery.

Our laboratories and our communities have worked together for decades. European collaborators have contributed greatly to the Tevatron's many successes, including the discovery of the top quark, the discovery of fast oscillations in the decay of strange B mesons and the many searches for new phenomena. American collaborators have contributed to many programs at CERN, notably the extraordinary precision measurements of LEP, and more recently construction of the LHC accelerator and detectors. Fermilab scientists played a vital role through 2009 in readying the LHC for operation and are now participating in the physics analysis. The LHC is fast establishing itself as a focal point for research at the energy frontier. It is a vital tool for all of us - and the largest high-energy physics program for the US. The rapid rise in luminosity, excellent performance of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid and the deep understanding of both the LHC accelerator and the detectors are already extraordinary success stories.

The collaboration between our two laboratories spans not only the science and engineering of building accelerators and detectors and analyzing physics, but also education and outreach to the public. For example, Fermilab and CERN alternate yearly in running the Collider Physics School, where we train scientists, sharing completely what we know from the long experience at the Tevatron and the new tools developed for the much more complex and powerful detectors at the LHC. Our communication and outreach offices work closely together as part of the InterAction Collaboration with many other labs around the world.

CERN Council approves the laboratory's Medium Term Plan

From Interactions.org, Sept. 17, 2010

During an intense series of meetings, which concludes today, the CERN Council overwhelmingly approved the laboratory's revised Medium Term Plan for the period 2011 to 2015. The plan was originally presented to Council at its June session, at which Council asked CERN management to introduce cost-saving measures. In the revised plan, Member State contributions will be reduced by a total 135MCHF over the five-year period, with measures to consolidate CERN's social security systems bringing the total reduction to the programme to 343MCHF. The plan protects the flagship LHC programme, achieving cost savings by slowing down the pace of other programmes. CERN management considers this a good result for the Laboratory given the current financial environment.

"The plan we presented to Council is firmly science-driven," said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. "It reduces spending on research and consolidation through careful and responsible adjustment of the pace originally foreseen in a way that does not compromise the future research programme unduly. The reductions will be painful, but in the current financial environment, they are fair."

Indian Creek Road closed today until 3 p.m.

Indian Creek Road will be closed at MI-8 today until 3 p.m. for the erection of a steel structure for the low bay of the MI-8 building expansion project Access to MI-10 will be available via Kautz Road during this period.

Did you make a difference? Share sustainability stories

Fermilab is putting together a sustainability website and is looking for stories from employees and users about how you help the environment at work. Please tell us your story!

Maybe you ride your bike to work every day, recycled material for a project or thought of a new way to reduce energy use at the laboratory. What actions or steps have you taken at work or in getting to work that reduce waste, prevent pollution or otherwise lessen your impact or the laboratory's impact on the environment? Please e-mail your story to kswanson@fnal.gov.