Payroll manager Ron Pahl to retire this summer

Ron Pahl

After more than 17 years as payroll manager, Ron Pahl is closing the books for good.

"Payroll can be such a pressure-cooker environment, but Ron is always good-humored. He's the consummate payroll professional," said current Chief Financial Officer Cindy Conger, who hired Pahl in 1993.

"You could pay employees 1,000 times correctly, but you pay them wrong once and they remember that for the rest of their lives," Pahl said. "Our goal is to make sure paychecks are correct the first time."

Pahl has been instrumental in keeping the laboratory's pay applications current, most notably with the 1996 adoption and adaptation of PeopleSoft software, which brought much-needed integration to the HR-payroll system.

He also makes himself personally available to address employees' individual questions.

"He has an open door policy. Anybody that would need a hand, he lets them walk in," said Chief Accounting Officer Mike Rhoades.

Pahl extends that same sense of friendliness to his staff.

"He's got running jokes with several people," said LindaSue Smith, who will take over as payroll manager.

According to Pahl, Smith is ahead in the ongoing nickel bets they've been placing on ball games and project completion dates.

Pahl feels privileged to work at a place where people from all over the world come to work and where he can enjoy the natural surroundings.

"I like the open prairie, to be able to look out the window and see deer and other animals running across. It's so beautiful and peaceful," he said.

After retiring, Pahl plans to tend to his garden of 80 tomato plants and put his handyman skills to use volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. He'll also be doing favors for his four kids and lavishing attention on his three grandchildren.

Pahl will transition out of his role during July. Celebrate Pahl's career and his retirement at a party tomorrow, June 30, from 2-4 p.m. on the WH-15 south crossover.

-- Leah Hesla

Ron Pahl (center) with members of the Payroll Department in April.

New employees - June 21

Front row from left: Julia Dawson, Rashaun Warner, Samarth Chopra, Emily Bacalao, Caleb Conway, Kimani Whitsey and Mylo Carter. Second row from left: Jamie Yang, Elliott Sherrell, Karen Lipa, Afua Amoabin, Jessica Gonzalez, Dominic Gattone and Ramon Herrera.

LHC sets a new personal record: 10,000 particle smash-ups per second

From 80 beats, a Discover blog, June 28, 2010

As a younger stronger particle smasher, the Large Hadron Collider can turn even baby steps into new records. Over this past weekend, the LHC beat another personal best-colliding its most protons yet at 10,000 particle collisions per second (about double its earlier rate). Physicists believe this is a crucial step on the collider's hunt for new physics.

In November of 2009, the LHC collided its first protons as it started its quest to find the suspected mass-giving particle known as the Higgs Boson. The collider is still running at half of its designed maximum energy, but after this weekend, the number of particles per bunch traveling in the ring is just what physicists had planned.

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