Monday, Jan. 27, 2014
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Monday, Jan. 27

2:30 p.m.
Particle Astrophysics Seminar (NOTE LOCATION) - Curia II
Speaker: Dan Scolnic, Johns Hopkins University
Title: Cosmology Results from the Pan-STARRs Supernova Survey

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

4 p.m.
All Experimenters' Meeting - Curia II

Tuesday, Jan. 28

11 a.m.
Academic Lecture Series - One West
Speaker: Andre de Gouvea, Northwestern University
Title: Light Sterile Neutrinos: Theory

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

Postponed until Tuesday, Feb. 4
4 p.m.
Accelerator Physics and Technology Seminar - One West
Speaker: Bill Pellico and Bob Zwaska, Fermilab
Title: Proton Improvement Plan — Meeting the HEP Proton Needs

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Secon Level 3

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Flags at full staff

Wilson Hall Cafe

Monday, Jan. 27

- Breakfast: blueberry crepes
- Breakfast: sausage, egg and cheese croissant
- Philly-style cheesesteak with peppers
- Smart cuisine: sweet and sour apricot chicken
- White-wine poached salmon
- Spicy Asian chicken wrap
- Stir fry sensations
- Egg drop soup
- Texas-style chili

Wilson Hall Cafe menu

Chez Leon

Wednesday, Jan. 29
Lunch
- Ziti with sausage, onions and fennel
- Mixed green salad
- White-chocolate raspberry cheesecake

Friday, Jan. 31
Dinner
Closed

Chez Leon menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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From symmetry

Labs work together toward high luminosity LHC

Scientists who need to test parts for experiments at the Large Hadron Collider are taking advantage of Fermilab's Test Beam Facility. Photo: Reidar Hahn

Experiments at the Large Hadron Collider put up with a lot. Not only do they withstand the hundreds of millions of particle collisions that take place within their detectors each second; they also collect huge amounts of information from them.

It's only going to get more complicated: CERN is busy preparing to turn up the energy of the LHC in 2015.

To face the challenge, scientists around the world are working non-stop to make sure their detectors are fast enough and tough enough for the increase in collisions. They do this by testing materials and prototypes in beams of high-energy particles that simulate the environment inside the accelerator.

One place where they can do this is the Test Beam Facility at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, near Chicago.

"High-energy physics is a global enterprise," says Richard Cavanaugh, a professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, with a joint appointment at Fermilab, and the former head of Fermilab's LHC Physics Center.

With the CERN accelerator complex — which includes a similar testing facility — shut down since early 2013 for the upgrades, Fermilab's facility is seeing even more LHC-related work than usual.

"The Fermilab test beam has been a tremendous resource and has allowed for research and development to continue during the CERN accelerator shutdown," Cavanaugh says.

The Test Beam Facility (pictured above) is an R&D center that provides researchers with access to a versatile particle beam, which they can use at a variety of energies and intensities, using different types of particles. This facility is invaluable for scientists who work on the LHC experiments such as ATLAS and CMS — two general-purpose detectors located at CERN — to test materials and detector components.

Read more

Sarah Charley

Photo of the Day

Overhead light

Light from the moon and, to its left, Jupiter, finds its way through the clouds. Photo: Elliott McCrory, AD
In Brief

Call for applications: URA Visiting Scholars Program

Universities Research Association Inc. has announced a deadline of Feb. 24 to submit of applications for the spring 2014 cycle of awards in the URA Visiting Scholars Program at Fermilab. Award recipients will be notified at the end of March.

These awards provide financial support for faculty and students from URA's 88 member universities to work at Fermilab for periods of up to one year. URA makes two rounds of awards each year, one in the spring and fall. The application deadline for the fall 2014 cycle is Aug. 25.

Proposed visits can range from attendance at conferences or summer schools held at Fermilab to year-long research stays. Support from this program can include transportation costs and local lodging expenses during a series of shorter visits or salary support during a longer visit. Individual awardees may receive up to a maximum of $50,000 in any 12-month period.

The program is sponsored by URA. The 88 URA-member universities each have agreed to contribute $5,000 a year for five years in support of joint Fermilab-URA research and education initiatives.

For details on the URA Visiting Scholars Program at Fermilab, including eligibility, application process, award administration and the names of past award recipients, visit the URA Visiting Scholars Program website.

In the News

Japanese government makes a move

From LC NewsLine, Jan. 23, 2014

We were all holding our breath to see the Japanese government making an official move towards hosting the ILC. A small but significant move happened as a Christmas present.

On 24 December 2013, the Japanese cabinet released the government budget proposal for the Japanese Fiscal Year 2014 that will be voted on in the Diet early this year. It includes an official budget line for the ILC. This is highly important as it represents a qualitative change in the status of the ILC in the Japanese government and indicates that it is now a recognised project. Given the majority of the ruling coalition in both Houses, it is virtually guaranteed that the budget proposal will pass.

Read more

In the News

CoGeNT gives further backing to annual dark-matter variation

From Physics World, Jan. 20, 2014

A long-standing and controversial claim by the DAMA collaboration in Italy that it has observed dark matter has received fresh support from a US-based experiment. Like DAMA, the CoGeNT collaboration says that it continues to see a seasonal variation in the number of events registered in its detector. Such a variation would be expected if the Milky Way galaxy were shrouded in a "halo" of dark matter, but several other dark-matter searches have failed to see the effect.

Read more

Tip of the Week: Sustainability

Renewable energy certificates help support clean energy

This chart shows Fermilab's total greenhouse gas emissions, or total energy usage, measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in FY 2008 and 2013, as well as its projected usage and renewable energy certificate purchases. RECs are an important part of Fermilab's GHG reduction plan. Image taken from Fermilab Site Sustainability Plan (certificate required to read plan)

Fermilab requires enormous amounts of energy to produce scientific results in the field of high-energy physics research. The lab must decrease its carbon footprint and has very specific sustainability goals set forth by DOE, which are driven by the Executive Order 13514.

The laboratory has made efforts to decrease greenhouse gases, or GHGs, related to commuting, business travel, building use and industrial processes. Yet compared to the electricity needed for the machines and facilities that do the science, the energy saved by these efforts is small. When the accelerators are operating, Fermilab uses close to 500,000 megawatt-hours of electricity annually. During the shutdown of the accelerator complex in FY 2013 for maintenance and upgrades, the laboratory used about 200,000 megawatt-hours.

Because of the installation and maintenance costs of renewable energy equipment, low electricity costs in Illinois, the geography of Fermilab and a lack of direct funding for sustainability projects, large-scale wind- and solar-energy projects are not cost-effective on site.

So how does Fermilab meet these sustainability goals, and what happens in the future when the science program requires even more electricity? The laboratory's biggest GHG reduction contribution is not an actual decrease in electricity use but rather an offset in the form of buying RECs, or renewable energy certificates.

RECs represent the attributes of renewable energy generation and can be purchased as commodities separate from commodity electricity. A renewable-energy generator or company can produce one REC for every megawatt-hour of electricity it generates for the grid. Another party can then purchase the REC and, in so doing, contribute to the renewable-energy market.

Electricity produced by renewable energy has a much lower environmental impact, decreasing the amount of fossil-fuel-produced electricity available on the grid. RECs provide electricity users such as Fermilab, which are unable to directly purchase or generate green power, with a creative way to decrease their carbon footprint. They also stimulate the market by investment in renewable energy production and research and development in new technologies.

In FY 2013, Fermilab paid $19,398 for 29,000 megawatt-hours of RECs to meet sustainability goals. These RECs were generated from new biomass plants that help reduce the environmental impact of the paper industry in Louisiana. Predicted electricity usage increases for FY 2020 will require Fermilab to purchase 213,756 megawatt-hours at a 2013 cost of $142,981, barring the implementation of on-site cost-effective renewable energy.

The above table shows the projected carbon emissions based on future experiments in 2020 and the number of RECs needed to meet DOE's goals.

Whether we help save energy by carpooling to work or getting in on the renewable-energy market, every little bit counts toward a greener, cleaner world.

Katie Kosirog

Death

In memoriam: Debra Ziomek

Fermilab employee Debra Ziomek passed away on Jan. 24 at the age of 53 after nearly 11 years battling kidney cancer.

A visitation will be held Tuesday, Jan. 28, from 3-8 p.m. at The Healy Chapel, 370 Division Dr., Sugar Grove, Ill. A funeral mass will be held Wednesday, Jan. 29, at 10 a.m. at St. Katharine Drexel Catholic Church, 8S055 Dugan Rd. in Sugar Grove. Interment will take place at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery.

View Ziomek's obituary.

Milestone

New employees - January

The following regular employees started at Fermilab in January:

Brittany Bossarte, CCD; Giulia Brunetti, PPD; George Deinlein, AD; Michael Gheith, SCD.

Fermilab welcomes them to the laboratory.

Announcements

Today's New Announcements

Lunch and Learn: Resources and Tips to be more Green with SCARCE - Feb. 5

Artist reception for Jay Strommen - Feb. 7

Strength Training by Bod Squad

Indoor soccer

Power Writing Workshops - Jan. 30

C2ST talk: The Nature of Nano 2 - Jan. 30

ICFA Neutrino Panel town meeting - Jan. 30-31

NALWO crepe cooking demo - Feb. 3

DreamWeaver CS6: levels 1 and 2 - Feb. 3-4

Free introductory yoga classes - Feb. 3, 6

Family Science Days in Chicago - Feb. 15-16

Interpersonal Communication Skills - Feb. 26

2014 standard mileage reimbursement rate

Fermi Singers invites new members

Abri Credit Union member appreciation

Free weekly Tai Chi Easy, Integral Tai Chi/Qigong classes

Scottish country dancing meets Tuesday evenings at Kuhn Barn

International folk dancing meets Thursday evenings at Kuhn Barn

10 percent employee discount at North Aurora Dental Associates