Prairie Rangers preserve environment, explore nature

The original Prairie Rangers have been part of the program for more than a year now.

A group of curious kids have joined together to explore nature, and they are looking for new recruits.

They are the Junior Prairie Rangers, members of a program at Fermilab's Lederman Science Center that teaches students in grades 4-6 about nature and biodiversity.

Now entering its second year, the Prairie Rangers will kick off its 2010 events on Jan. 16. A registration form and more information is available online.

Maureen Hix, a Fermilab docent and former school teacher, started the program in 2008 to heighten children's interest in nature. The Prairie Rangers will meet five times this year and focus on three goals: Learn about the prairie; become stewards of the environment; and promote biodiversity awareness.

"I want students to develop a lifelong respect for nature and learn to protect and revive the prairie," Hix said. "This program helps rangers apply biodiversity and ecology to their own backyard."

The Prairie Rangers are taught that all things in nature are interconnected. They observe insects, build terrariums housing plant specimens and grow plants from seeds picked at Fermilab. This year, the Junior Rangers will learn about milkweed and the monarch butterfly.

At the end of each successfully completed activity, each Junior Ranger earns a pin of stewardship.

So far, there have been 14 certified Junior Rangers, including original ranger Nathaniel Blowers, son of Fermilab TD's Jamie Blowers.

"My favorite activity was the seed harvest where we filled bags with clipped seeds and then grew some of them," he said. "I would like to pursue ecology and teach people about the prairie and endangered plants."

The Junior Prairie Rangers will meet from 9:30 a.m. to noon on Jan. 16 at the Lederman Science Center. Registration is $10. More information about the program, including a complete schedule, is available online.

-- Tonisha Taylor

NuMI shatters records, again

The NuMI beamline received record numbers of protons on target again last week, shattering its newest records. NuMI received 92.1 x 10¹⁷ protons on target during the week of Jan. 4, setting a new record for a week, and 14.0 x 10¹⁷ protons on target on Jan. 9, a new record for a single day.

Help fill in the blanks: Identify people in the collage photo

In January 2007, Fermilab Today displayed some names and photographs of early Fermilab employees from the 1969 employee directory.

Years later the pictures of these early laboratory employees were assembled in a collage and displayed in the Fermilab Personnel Office. The History & Archives Project has now put the collage online and attached their names, but we need some help with the last dozen or more unknown employees.

Please review the collage and click on the faces with question marks for a clean photograph. If you can identify someone, please use the form to contact The History & Archives Project staff and let them know who is in those photographs.

This interactive exhibit was prepared by BSS's Jean Reising, who spent hours scanning individual head shots from Visual Media Services' proof books.

Tracey Quinn appointed assistant vice president for national laboratories

From The University of Chicago News, Jan. 8, 2010

Larry Hill, Associate Vice President for Program Development and National Laboratories, has appointed Tracey Quinn Assistant Vice President for National Laboratories.

In her capacity in the Office of the Vice President for Research and for National Laboratories, Quinn will serve as Secretary to the UChicago Argonne, LLC Board of Governors and the Fermi Research Alliance, LLC Board of Directors, and have executive management responsibility for all board support and programmatic and operational review functions for both boards.

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U of M adding 40-50 jobs for new neutrino facility

From Wichita Business Journal, Jan. 6, 2010

The University of Minnesota is expanding its neutrino research operation with a new assembly facility that will open this spring near campus.

The school is days away from signing a lease for 125,000 square feet in an industrial building at 1090 Elm St. E. near its Minneapolis campus, according to Sue Weinberg, director of real estate for the university. The school plans to be in the leased space by March.

The university will pay $2.36 million over the initial three-year term of the lease, not including certain operating expenses. The school will have options to extend the lease for up to two additional years, she said.

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