Monday, Dec. 3, 2012
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Have a safe day!

Monday, Dec. 3

2:30 p.m.
Particle Astrophysics Seminar - One West
Speaker: Dan Grin, Institute for Advanced Study
Title: New Light on Cosmic Initial Conditions and Dark Matter

3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over

4 p.m.
All Experimenters' Meeting - Curia II
Special Topics: Holometer Status; DarkSide Status

Tuesday, Dec. 4

2 p.m.
LHC Physics Center Topic of the Week Seminar - WH11
Speaker: Alexander Paramonov, Argonne National Laboratory
Title: Study of Jets Produced in Association with a Vector Boson

3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over

THERE WILL BE NO ACCELERATOR PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR TODAY

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Secon Level 3

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Flags at full-staff

Wilson Hall Cafe

Monday, Dec. 3

- Breakfast: blueberry pancakes
- Vegetarian potato leek soup
- Sloppy joe
- Pecan-crusted chicken breast
- Smart cuisine: pasta primavera
- Oven-roasted veggie wrap
- Assorted pizza by the slice
- Shrimp and crab scampi

Wilson Hall Cafe Menu

Chez Leon

Wednesday, Dec. 5
Lunch
- Cajun jambalaya (shrimp, chicken and andouille sausage)
- Mixed-green salad
- Sour-cream lemon pie

Friday, Dec. 7
Dinner
- Mushroom soup with chorizo and scallions
- Pecan-crusted beef tenderloin
- Cauliflower gratin
- Brussels sprouts with lemon and bacon
- Chocolate mousse pie

Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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Special Announcement

Director Search Committee seeks your input

The Fermilab Director Search Committee, led by former Lockheed Martin chairman and CEO Norman Augustine, will have its next meeting at Fermilab on Dec. 11 and 12. As part of the search process, the committee seeks input from Fermilab employees and the physics community. Employees and users are encouraged to participate in the search process by attending one of the meetings below or by sending written comments and suggestions to the committee.

The following upcoming meetings provide an opportunity for the search committee to obtain your input and answer your questions:

  • Town Hall meeting for Fermilab employees and users
    Tuesday, Dec. 11, 10 to 11 a.m., Ramsey Auditorium. The Director Search Committee will provide a brief overview of the search process, which will be followed by a question-and-answer session. Questions can also be submitted prior to the town hall meeting. For those who cannot attend in person, the meeting will be streamed live. Search committee members will be available for discussion in the auditorium lobby immediately following the town hall meeting.
  • Ten-minute individual meetings with committee teams
    Tuesday, Dec. 11, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Wilson Hall. Register for a private, ten-minute meeting with a subgroup of the committee.
  • Mini-town hall meeting for Fermilab students and postdocs
    Wednesday, Dec. 12, 9 to 9:30 a.m., One West. All Fermilab Student and Postdoc Association officers and members are invited to attend a briefing and question-and-answer session with the search committee.

More information on the Fermilab Director Search Committee, including a list of members, charge to the committee and description of the search process, is available on the Director Search website.

From symmetry

Physics education program QuarkNet develops global reach

A professional development program created in the United States to help teachers explain particle physics has caught on across the world. Photo courtesy of Juliana Socher / TU Dresden

When Virginia high-school teacher Deborah Roudebush teaches physics, she doesn't exactly follow the book.

In one of her more memorable lessons, she gives her students a stopwatch and a ruler and sets a toy pig flying around the classroom. The students must use their tools to determine the speed of the pig in two different ways.

"There's no set value for pig speed," Roudebush says. "I'm teaching them to develop methods and test those methods. That's how scientists do it."

Roudebush was inspired to do more inquiry-based lessons after attending a professional development program called QuarkNet, which supplies high-school teachers with the knowledge and equipment, including instructional materials, to explain particle physics to their students through hands-on experience.

The program began as a national outreach effort by the US particle physics community, but it has since moved beyond its original borders. The United Kingdom, Austria, China and Georgia are all investigating setting up their own programs. Taiwan founded its network in 2006, and Germany is three years into developing its version of the program.

In the United States, the QuarkNet program is funded by the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. Its offices are split between Fermilab and the University of Notre Dame, and more than 50 universities and laboratories in the United States host QuarkNet centers.

Teachers in the United States can get their start in QuarkNet by attending a weeklong particle physics boot camp at Fermilab. Each year, 25 participants analyze data from the Large Hadron Collider with help from QuarkNet staff teachers and other educators. The teachers bring what they learned back to their students, helping them with hands-on assignments of their own.

Read more

Ashley WennersHerron

In the News

National labs, UChicago scientists and scholars engage in 'Playing with Time'

From University of Chicago News, Nov. 28, 2012

Ubiquitous but elusive, time can be defined and discussed but also measured and manipulated; valued or ignored; constructed and interpreted; even warped and traveled. Who knew that playing with time could be such fun?

That's what a multidisciplinary panel concluded at "Playing with Time," the sixth in a series of Joint Speaker Events featuring University of Chicago faculty and Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory scientists, researchers and engineers. Organized by the Office of the Vice President for Research and for National Laboratories, the event was held on Nov. 7 at the Field Museum.

Read more
Tip of the Week: Ecology

Recycling to reduce waste

This poster, printed during World War II, shows that recycling is not a new concept. Image courtesy of Vanderbilt University Special Collections and University Archives

Since the advent of the modern-day environmental movement in the United States in the late 1960s, recycling has arguably been the single most identifiable component of a sustainable strategy. The idea of using materials over and over instead of extracting more limited resources appeals to our common sense and is easy to understand and implement. Today, nearly everyone has access to curbside recycling services or, at least, a centralized collection point for waste that can be recycled or reused. In the latest statistics compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans recycle about 34 percent of the waste we generate, and an additional 11 percent is burned for energy production. That leaves 55 percent that still winds up in landfills—an increasingly expensive and damaging practice.

Over the last 20 years or so, we at Fermilab have made great strides in managing and minimizing waste, partly through a concerted recycling effort. For example, since 2007, our custodial subcontractor has played an integral part in the collection of recyclable materials throughout the laboratory. During the fiscal year that ended in September 2012, Fermilab generated approximately 375 tons of waste, of which nearly 135 tons, or about 36 percent, was ultimately recycled. We keep separate statistics on construction and demolition waste, and in that area, we recycled about 93 percent during FY2012.

Each year, we report various sustainability measures to DOE and the federal government in the Site Sustainability Plan. We report our performance relative to goals set for us, based on national standards. Our recycling goal for both domestic construction and demolition waste is 50 percent. Clearly, our management of construction waste far exceeds our goal, but we could probably do a better job of recycling other waste.

That's where all of us can help. Think carefully before tossing things into the trash—it may be that you can toss them into recycling containers instead. The materials most commonly (and effectively) recycled include plastic, glass and metal containers, and paper products. You can also carry these practices over to your home. Remember that any plastic product that carries the recycling triangle symbol on the bottom is potentially recyclable, so put it in the recycle bin.

Rod Walton

Photo of the Day

Bold strokes

Broken Symmetry arches overhead. Photo: Steve Krave, TD
In the News

Physicists seek animated answers to dark secrets of the universe

From Reuters, Nov. 29, 2012

Nov. 29 - Physicists at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois hope to unravel the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy with the most detailed computer simulations of the universe ever built. The two theoretical forces have never been detected but are believed to make up more than 95 percent of the universe. The researchers want to know what the forces are and how they work.

Read more
Announcements

Today's New Announcements

The Good Lovelies: Under the Mistletoe - Dec. 8

An Honest Approach to Weight Management - register by Dec. 21

NALWO Holiday Tea - Dec. 4

Wilson Hall super science stocking stuffer sale - Dec. 4-5

C2ST screening of "A Beautiful Mind" - Dec. 6

Playgroup Holiday Party - Dec. 7

Fermilab Heartland Blood Drive - Dec. 10-11

AFS passwords to be discontinued - Dec. 11

Fermilab's Holiday Celebration - Dec. 13

Holiday stress relief massages - Dec. 20

Professional development courses

International Folk Dancing every Thursday through December

Indoor soccer

Employee discount at Journey Cycle and BMX

Additional Fermilab employee discounts

Atrium work updates